/ 
DateConvert-0.14
River stage one • 1 direct dependent • 1 total dependent
/ Date::Convert

NAME

Date::Convert - Convert Between any two Calendrical Formats

SYNOPSIS

use Date::DateCalc;

$date=new Date::Convert::Gregorian(1997, 11, 27);
@date=$date->date;
convert Date::Convert::Hebrew $date;
print $date->date_string, "\n";

Currently defined subclasses:

Date::Convert::Astro
Date::Convert::Gregorian
Date::Convert::Hebrew
Date::Convert::Julian

Date::Convert is intended to allow you to convert back and forth between any arbitrary date formats (ie. pick any from: Gregorian, Julian, Hebrew, Astronomical, and any others that get added on). It does this by having a separate subclass for each format, and requiring each class to provide standardized methods for converting to and from the date format of the base class. In this way, instead of having to code a conversion routine for going between and two arbitrary formats foo and bar, the function only needs to convert foo to the base class and the base class to bar. Ie:

Gregorian <--> Base class <--> Hebrew

The base class includes a Convert method to do this transparently.

Nothing is exported because it wouldn't make any sense to export. :)

DESCRIPTION

Fucntion can be split into several categories:

  • Universal functions available for all subclasses (ie. all formats). The fundamental conversion routines fit this category.

  • Functions that are useful but don't necessarily make sense for all subclasses. The overwhelming majority of functions fall into this category. Even such seemingly universal concepts as year, for instance, don't apply to all date formats.

  • Private functions that are required of all subclasses, ie. initialize. These should not be called by users.

Here's the breakdown by category:

Functions Defined for all Subclasses

new

Create a new object in the specified format with the specified start paramaters, ie. $date = new Date::Convert::Gregorian(1974, 11, 27). The start parameters vary with the subclass. My personal preference is to order in decreasing order of generality (ie. year first, then month, then day, or year then week, etc.)

This can have a default date, which should probably be "today".

date

Extract the date in a format appropriate for the subclass. Preferably this should match the format used with new, so

(new date::Convert::SomeClass(@a))->date;

should be an identity function on @a if @a was in a legitmate format.

date_string

Return the date in a pretty format.

convert

Change the date to a new format.

Non-universal functions

year

Return just the year element of date.

month

Just like year.

day

Just like year and month.

is_leap

Boolean. Note that (for ::Hebrew and ::Gregorian, at least!) this can be also be used as a static. That is, you can either say $date->is_leap or is_leap Date::Convert::Hebrew 5757

Private functions that are required of all subclasses

You shouldn't call these, but if you want to add a class, you'll need to write them! Or it, since at the moment, there's only one.

initialize

Read in args and initialize object based on their values. If there are no args, initialize with the base class's initialize (which will initialize in the default way described above for new.) Note the American spelling of "initialize": "z", not "s".

SUBCLASS SPECIFIC NOTES

Astro

The "astro" calendar is just the number of days from a certain reference point. It has no notion of years, making it an extremely easy calendar for conversion purposes. I believe that the formal names for this are "Astronomical Day Number" and "Julian Day Number" (not to be confused with the Julian calendar).

The subclass is little more than the base class, and as the lowest common denominator, doesn't have any special functions.

Gregorian

The Gregorian calendar is a purely solar calendar, with a month that is only an approximation of a lunar month. It is based on the old Julian (Roman) calendar. This is the calendar that has been used by most of the Western world for the last few centuries. The time of its adoption varies from country to country. This ::Gregorian allows you to extrapolate back to 1 A.D., as per the prorgamming tradition, even though the calendar definitely was not in use then.

In addition to the required methods, Gregorian also has year, month, day, and is_leap methods. As mentioned above, is_leap can also be used statically.

Hebrew

This is the traditional Jewish calendar. It's based on the solar year, on the lunar month, and on a number of additional rules created by Rabbis to make life tough on people who calculate calendars. :) If you actually wade through the source, you should note that the seventh month really does come before the first month, that's not a bug.

It comes with the following additional methods: year, month, day, is_leap, rosh, part_add, and part_mult. rosh returns the astro day corresponding to "Rosh HaShana" (New year) for a given year, and can also be invoked as a static. part_add and part_mult are useful functions for Hebrew calendrical calculations are not for much else; if you're not familiar with the Hebrew calendar, don't worry about them.

Islamic

The traditional Muslim calendar, a purely lunar calendar with a year that is a rough approximation of a solar year. Currently unimplemented.

Julian

The old Roman calendar, allegedly named for Julius Caesar. Purely solar, with a month that is a rough approximation of the lunar month. Used extensively in the Western world up to a few centuries ago, then the West gradually switched over to the more accurate Gregorian. Now used only by the Eastern Orthodox Church, AFAIK.

ADDING NEW SUBCLASSES

This section describes how to extend Date::Convert to add your favorite date formats. If you're not interested, feel free to skip it. :)

There are only three function you have to write to add a new subclass: you need initialize, date, and date_string. Of course, helper functions would probably help. . . You do not need to write a new or convert function, since the base class handles them nicely.

First, a quick conceptual overhaul: the base class uses an "astronomical format" ("Julian day format") borrowed from emacs. This is just days numbered absolutely from an extremely long time ago. I don't know much about it, but it's really easy to use, particularly if you have emacs and emacs' calendar mode. Each Date::Convert object is a reference to a hash (as in all OO perl) and includes a special "astro" value stored under a reserved "astro" key. When initialize initializes an object, say a Gregorian date, it stores whatever data it was given in the object and it also calculates the "astro" equivalent of the date and stores it, too. If the user converts to another date, the object is wiped clean of all data except "astro". Then when the date method for the new format is called, it calculates the date in the new format from the "astro" data.

Now that I've thoroughly confused you, here's a more compartmentalized version:

initialize

Take the date supplied as argument as appropriate to the format, and convert it to "astro" format. Store it as $$self{'astro'}. You might also want to store other data, ie. ::Gregorian stores $$self{'year'}, $$self{'month'}, and $$self{'day'}. If no args are supplied, explicitly call the base class's initialize, ie. Date::Convert::initialize, to initialize with a default 'astro' date and nothing else.

NOTE: I may move the default behavior into the new constructor.

date

Return the date in a appropriate format. Note that the only fact that date can take as given is that $$self{'astro'} is defined, ie. this object may not have been initialized by the initialize of this object's class. For instance, you might have it check if $$self{'year'} is defined. If it is, then you have the year component, otherwise, you calculate year from $$self{'astro'}.

date_string

This is the easy part. Just call date, then return a pretty string based on the values.

NOTE: The ::Astro subclass is a special case, since it's nearly an empty subclass (ie. it's just the base class with the required methods filled out). Don't use it as an example! The easiest code to follow would have been ::Julian except that Julian inherits from ::Gregorian. Maybe I'll reverse that. . .

EXAMPLES

#!/usr/local/bin/perl5 -w

use Date::Convert;

$date=new Date::Convert::Gregorian(1974, 11, 27);
convert Date::Convert::Hebrew $date;
print $date->date_string, "\n";

My Gregorian birthday is 27 Nov 1974. The above prints my Hebrew birthday.

convert Date::Convert::Gregorian $date;
print $date->date_string, "\n";

And that converts it back and prints it in Gregorian.

$guy = new Date::Convert::Hebrew (5756, 7, 8);
print $guy->date_string, " -> ";
convert Date::Convert::Gregorian $guy;
print $guy->date_string, "\n";

Another day, done in reverse.

@a=(5730, 3, 2);
@b=(new Date::Convert::Hebrew @a)->date;
print "@a\n@b\n";

The above should be an identity for any list @a that represents a legitimate date.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -an

use Date::Convert;

$date = new Date::Convert::Gregorian @F;
convert Date::Convert::Hebrew $date;
print $date->date_string, "\n";

And that's a quick Greg -> Hebrew conversion program, for those times when people ask.

SEE ALSO

perl(1), Date::DateCalc(3)

VERSION

Date::Convert 0.14 (pre-alpha)

AUTHOR

Mordechai T. Abzug <morty@umbc.edu>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND FURTHER READING

The basic idea of using astronomical dates as an intermediary between all calculations comes from Dershowitz and Reingold. Reingold's code is the basis of emacs's calendar mode. Two papers describing their work (which I used to own, but lost! Darn.) are:

``Calendrical Calculations'' by Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold, Software--Practice and Experience, Volume 20, Number 9 (September, 1990), pages 899-928. ``Calendrical Calculations, Part II: Three Historical Calendars'' by E. M. Reingold, N. Dershowitz, and S. M. Clamen, Software--Practice and Experience, Volume 23, Number 4 (April, 1993), pages 383-404.

They were also scheduled to come out with a book on calendrical calculations in Dec. 1996, but as of March 1997, it still isn't out yet.

The Hebrew calendrical calculations are largely based on a cute little English book called The Hebrew Calendar (I think. . .) in a box somewhere at my parents' house. (I'm organized, see!) I'll have to dig around next time I'm there to find it. If you want to access the original Hebrew sources, let me give you some advice: Hilchos Kiddush HaChodesh in the Mishneh Torah is not the Rambam's most readable treatment of the subject. He later wrote a little pamphlet called "MaAmar HaEibur" which is both more complete and easier to comprehend. It's included in "Mich't'vei HaRambam" (or some such; I've got to visit that house), which was reprinted just a few years ago.

Steffen Beyer's Date::DateCalc showed me how to use MakeMaker and write POD documentation. Of course, any error is my fault, not his!

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1997 by Mordechai T. Abzug

LICENSE STUFF

You can distribute, modify, and otherwise mangle Date::Convert under the same terms as perl.