Re: API question

[John Peacock]

Dave Rolsky wrote:

    my $dt1 = new DateTime "Yesterday";

No, these would have to be either:

  my $dt = DateTime->parse( "Yesterday" );

or

  my $dt = DateTime::Parse::Extended->datetime( "Yesterday" );

So what input would use DateTime->new instead? Or are you saying that of my examples, only "Yesterday" has to be special cased.? In which case _I_ would prefer that the new() was smart enough to try and locate additional help in parsing, rather than requiring the programmer to decide whether to call new() or parse().

Why not have the ->new() call handle the basic ISO date format (and a few others) internally and then backtrack to increasingly obscure parsing methods if the previous level of parsing fails. For example, have DateTime::Parse contain an array of possible parsing methods which each are tried in turn. This way, if you never need Date::Manip, it is never loaded, but it is there if you do need it without your having to explicitely ask for it.

John

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John Peacock
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