sent from wrong account - message follows:

> I've found most of the time library to be quite useful, but the parsing to be 
> worthless (I've tried to get someone to prove me wrong already, and would be 
> happy if someone could on this thread!). 
> 
> Specifically, the formatTime function, if it ever strips out padding (by 
> zeros or spaces), results in a time that is unparseable. The fact that 
> formatTime and parseTime are not capable of being inverses of each other 
> seems like a major flaw, when you think that this is not a parseable date:
> 
> 2011/1/30 (because the month must be padded by zeros).
> 
> Even though it is very easy to print, and occurs commonly in the world.
> 
> Because of this, I use formatTime to write my times, and then have a custom 
> parser to parse them back out. Which makes me think that this is a broken 
> library
> 
> On Jun 27, 2011, at 10:37 AM, <[email protected]> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:15:28 +0300
>> Yitzchak Gale <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> The biggest shortcoming, in my opinion, is that the documentation
>>> assumes that the reader is very familiar with the Haskell type
>>> system, and with viewing type signatures and instance lists as an
>>> integral and central part of the documentation.
>>> 
>>> In particular, Haskell's standard numeric type classes and the
>>> conversion functions between them play a central role in the API
>>> of Data.Time. But you wouldn't realize that unless you have read
>>> the type signatures and instance lists in the Haddocks very
>>> carefully, and have thought about it for a while.
>> 
>> This is exactly right.
>> 
>>> 
>>> Another problem, as Malcolm pointed out, is that because of the
>>> sheer size of the library, a quick-start guide for the common
>>> cases would be extremely helpful for newcomers.
>> 
>> That would be very, very helpful.  I had a few working examples things were 
>> much better.  Finding a starting place, any starting place, proved to be 
>> quite elusive.  Also the fact that asking for the current time traps you in 
>> IO hell, doesn't help, although it's clear that it should be that way.
>> 
>> Brian
>> 
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> 

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