On Tue, 8 Aug 2000, Nathan Wiger wrote:
> > While I think Time::Object is a really great module, and following these
> > discussions I'm thinking of adding a date() function to it
>
> Aaah! Please don't. :-) Name it something else, por favor (or at least
> wait until this is finalized and make the interface the same).
Thats the idea...
> > The only part of this proposal that I like is Damian's WANTHASH extension
> > which would allow localtime{'day', 'month', 'year'}.
>
> That and returning an object in a scalar context. This is a key shift
> I'd like to see in Perl 6 - embedding objects at a low-level and
> translating them to strings only on demand.
Well OK, I concede... Lets see how Larry takes to these ideas. Judging by
the fact that this is something he originally suggested, I'm guessing he
might be into it.
> > I'm also really aware that trying to change localtime in an array context to
> > return the real year is going to be a very painful change.
>
> The RFC doesn't mention localtime() for just this reason. The idea would
> be localtime would be GONE in Perl 6, instead moved to Time::Local.
> date() would replace it.
All I can say to that is, ugh! I don't want to see Perl6 be so
fundamentally different to perl5 that I have to translate every single
script. I want some better stuff, but a new language is not what I'm
looking for.
> > I'd just like to say that just because strftime() is a unix-ism or
> > POSIX-ism, does not mean that its bad.
>
> Yeah, this is a tough call. I agree with you, personally. When I see
> strftime() I instantly know what it does. However, I think I've come up
> with an alternative that's just as good. I encourage you to check out
> v2, probably out by tomorrow. I think you'll like it better.
I take the Cozens stand on this: I don't like "alternatives" if they just
re-implement something that works already.
--
<Matt/>
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