Re: date interface (was Re: perl6 requirements, on bootstrap)

[Damian Conway]

   > >   my $date = localtime;
   > 
   > >And use $date->day (or month or year) later when you need to.
   > 
   > But people *like* to be able to put things in simple variables.
   > It's more convenient to type $day than $date->day for repeated usage.

Precisely. Hence my previous suggestion:

        $day = localtime;               # return date string in SCALAR context
        $year = localtime->{year};      # return hash ref in HASHREF context
        (@bits) = localtime;            # return list in LIST context

This just relies on extensions to the context mechanism which I will RFC RSN
when I propose the new want() built-in to replace wantarray().

Damian