Philip Kime wrote:
>Just to clarify further, DateTime::Incomplete isn't any use to me as
>it doesn't parse dates.

You can't expect a single module to do the whole job.  DateTime doesn't
parse dates either, that's the job of the DateTime::Format::* modules.
DateTime::Incomplete *is* exactly what you need to represent your partial
dates; what you're missing is modules to do the parsing, which would
logically be DateTime::Incomplete::Format::*, which don't exist yet.

>                                          Either the DataTime::Format
>modules need to have the option of creating DateTime::Incomplete
>objects instead of DateTime objects (an impossible requirements as
>there so many DateTime::Format modules) or DateTime needs to provide
>methods which retain this information

Extending DateTime::Format::* to be able to generate DateTime::Incomplete
objects would be the other way to do it.  Extending DateTime to cover
DateTime::Incomplete's job, however, would be neither necessary nor
sufficient: you'd still need DateTime::Format::* extended to pass along
information about incompleteness.

Unfortunately the parsing modules that you want don't exist yet.
Your best bet is probably to extend DateTime::Format::* yourself, to
optionally generate DateTime::Incomplete objects.  Then you can negotiate
about whether your changes should be rolled into the original modules
or should be released separately as DateTime::Incomplete::Format::*.

-zefram

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