Conclusions

At first, thinking about time and date handling seems like a snap. If humans lived as computers do, we might simply count the days in the year sequentially. "My birthday is on the 245th," you might say, or "Meet me at hour 22 on day 145." But no, because of a few greek Gods and some guy named Gregor our calendar is a messy pastiche which has given many programmers throbbing headaches and threatens to collapse modern civilization at critical dates.

On the other hand, Perl has ways of dealing with most date-related calculations, and a variety of additional modules offer a plethora of ways to patch over the mess of human timekeeping. Plus, consider the boost to our global economy provided by the subindustry of mall kiosks hawking "365 Ways to Know You're a Redneck".

Additional Resources

• Perl time function
• Perl localtime function
• Date::Manip Documentation
• Alternative: Date::Calc Documentation

Calendar Calisthenics
The Perl You Need to Know