NAME
   Date::Handler - Easy but complete date object (1.1)

SYNOPSIS
     use Date::Handler;

     my $date = new Date::Handler({ date => time, time_zone => 'Europe/Paris', locale => 'french'});
     my $date = new Date::Handler({ date => [2001,04,12,03,01,55], time_zone => 'EST', });
     my $date = new Date::Handler({ date => {
                                                   year => 2001,
                                                   month => 4,
                                                   day => 12,
                                                   hour => 3,
                                                   min => 1,
                                                   sec => 55,
                                           },
                                           time_zone => 'America/Los_Angeles',
                                           locale => 'en_US',
                                   });

      print $date;
      print "$date";
      print $date->AllInfo();

      $date->new()                         Constructor
      $date->Year()                        2001
      $date->Month()                       1..12
      $date->Day()                         1..31
      $date->Hour()                        0..23
      $date->Min()                         0..59
      $date->Sec()                         0..59
      $date->Epoch($epoch)                 Seconds since epoch (GMT)
      $date->TimeZone()                    America/Montreal,EST,PST and so on
      $date->Locale()                      french, en_US, fr_FR, spanish and so on
      $date->SetLocale(locale)             Set the locale to the argument, returns locale or undef.
      $date->LocaleRealName()              Current locale's real name on the system
      $date->TimeZoneName()                EST, PST and so on
      $date->LocalTime()                   localtime of the object's epoch
      $date->TimeFormat($format_string)    strftime
      $date->GmtTime()                     gmtime of object's epoch
      $date->UtcTime()                     same as GmtTime()
      $date->GmtOffset()                   Offset of object's TZ in seconds
      $date->MonthName()                   April
      $date->WeekDay()                     1..7 (1 monday)
      $date->WeekDayName()                 Wednesday
      $date->FirstWeekDayOfMonth()         1..7
      $date->WeekOfMonth()                 1..4
      $date->DaysInMonth()                 31,30,29,28 depending on month and year.
      $date->IsLeapYear()                  1 if true, 0 if false
      $date->DayLightSavings()             1 if true, 0 if false
      $date->DayOfYear()                   Return the day of the year
      $date->DaysInYear()                  Returns the number of days in the year.
      $date->DaysLeftInYear()              Returns the number of days remaining in the year
      $date->Array2Epoch([])                       Transfer [y,m,d,h,mm,ss] to epoch time
      $date->AsScalar ()                   Same as TimeFormat("%A, %B%e %Y %R (%Z)")
      $date->AsNumber()                    same as Epoch()
      $date->AsArray()                     Returns [y,m,d,h,mm,ss]
      $date->AsHash()                      Returns { year => y, month => m, day => d, hour => h, min => mm, sec => ss }
      $date->AllInfo()                     Returns a string containing all of the Object's related information.

      my $delta = new Date::Handler::Delta([3,1,10,2,5,5]);
      my $delta = new Date::Handler::Delta({
                                                   years => 3,
                                                   months => 1,
                                                   days => 10,
                                                   hours => 2,
                                                   minutes => 5,
                                                   seconds => 5,
                                           });

      $delta->new                          (More information in perldoc Date::Handler::Delta)
      $delta->Months()                     Number of months in delta
      $delta->Seconds()                    Number of seconds in delta
      $delta->AsScalar()                   "%d months and %d seconds"
      $delta->AsNumber()                   "%d-%d-%d"
      $delta->AsArray()                    [y,m,ss]
      $delta->AsHash()                     { months => m, seconds => ss }

      $date + $delta = Date::Handler
      $date - $delta = Date::Handler
      $date - $date2 = Date::Handler::Delta
      $date + n = (+n seconds)
      $date - n = (-n seconds)

      $delta + $delta = Date::Handler::Delta
      $delta - $delta = Date::Handler::Delta
      $delta * n = Date::Handler::Delta
      $delta / n = Date::Handler::Delta
      $delta + n = (+n seconds)
      $delta - n = (-n seconds)

      my $range = Date::Handler::Range->new({
                                                   date => $date,
                                                   delta => $delta,
                                           });
      my $range = Date::Handler::Range->new({
                                                   date => [2001,06,08,2,00,00],
                                                   delta => [0,0,1,0,0],
                                           });

      $range->new                  (More info in perldoc Date::Handler::Range)
      $range->Direction()          Specifies the direction of a range ('FORWARDS' || 'BACKWARDS')
      $range->StartDate()          Start Date::Handler object for this range and direction
      $range->EndDate()            End Date::Handler object for this range and direction
      $range->Overlaps($range2)    Returns true if range overlaps range2. undef otherwise.

DESCRIPTION
   Date::Handler is a container for dates that holds all the methods to
   transform itself from Timezone to Timezone and format itself. This
   module idea comes from an original version written by dLux (Szab�,
   Bal�zs) <[email protected]> in his module Class::Date.

   Date::Handler is implemented in pure Perl using POSIX modules, it
   encapsulates the environnement variable TZ for it's time zone management
   so you don't have to play with it externally in the implementation.
   Date::Handler also supports localisation using POSIX where available.

   It uses operator overloading and Delta date objects to calculates time
   differences.

IMPLEMENTATION
   Using the Date::Handler is simple.

 Creating the absolute Date::Handler
   The new() constructor receives only one argument as a hashref:

           my $date = new Date::Handler({
                                   date => time,
                                   time_zone => 'Japan',
                           });

           my $date = new Date::Handler({
                                   date => time(),
                                   time_zone => 'America/Los_Angeles',
                                   locale => 'spanish',
                           });

   The 'date' key of this argument can be either:

   * Epoch time
   * Anonymous array of the form: [y,m,d,h,mm,ss]
   * A hashref of the form : { year => y,month => m, day => d, hour => h,
   min => mm, sec => ss }

   The items in the array (or hash) of the 'date' key should follow these
   rules:

   * year - The year number
   * mon - The number of months since January, in the range 1 to 12.
   * day - The day of the month, in the range 1 to 31.
   * hour - The number of hours past midnight, in the range 0 to 23.
   * min - The number of minutes after the hour, in the range 0 to 59.
   * sec - The number of seconds after the minute, normally in the range 0
   to 59.

   The optional 'time_zone' key represents the time zone name this date is
   considered in. i.e. Africa/Dakar, EST, PST, EDT

   The optional 'locale' key represents the locale used to represent this
   date. i.e. spanish, japananese, de_DE , fr_FR

   You can also pass an 'intuitive_day' key to the constructor. This is
   described in the "USING INTUITIVE MONTH CALCULATIONS" section.

 Accessors
   You can access the data inside the object using any of the provided
   methods. These methods are detailed in the SYNOPSIS up above.

 Modifying the object
   A created Date::Handler can be modified on the fly by many ways:

   * Changing the time_zone of the object using TimeZone()
   * Changing the object's locale on the fly using SetLocale()
   * Changing the internal date of the object using Epoch()
   * By using operators in combination with Date::Handler::Delta objects
   Examples:

           #Start off with a basic object for NOW.
           my $date = new Date::Handler({ date => time });

           #Go through the time zones...
           $date->TimeZone('Asia/Tokyo');
           print "Time in tokyo: ".$date->LocalTime()."\n";
           $date->Epoch(time);
           $date->TimeZone('America/Montreal');
           print "Time in Montreal: ".$date->LocalTime()."\n";
           $date->TimeZone('GMT');
           print "Greenwich Mean Time: ".$date->LocalTime()."\n";

           # Go through some locales...

           $date->SetLocale('french');
           print "Time in ".$date->Locale().": ".$date."\n";
           $date->SetLocale('deutsch');
           print "Time in ".$date->Locale().": ".$date."\n";
           $date->SetLocale('spanish');
           print "Time in ".$date->Locale().": ".$date."\n";

 Operator overload special cases
   The Date::Handler overloaded operator have special cases. Refer to the
   SYNOPSIS to get a description of each overloaded operator's behaviour.

   One special case of the overload is when adding an integer 'n' to a
   Date::Handler's reference. This is treated as if 'n' was in seconds.
   Same thing for substraction.

   Example Uses of the overload:

           my $date = new Date::Handler({ date =>
                                           {
                                                   year => 2001,
                                                   month => 5,
                                                   day => 14,
                                                   hour => 5,
                                                   min => 0,
                                                   sec => 0,
                                           }});
           #Quoted string overload
           print "Current date is $date\n";

           my $delta = new Date::Handler::Delta({ days => 5, });

           #'+' overload, now, $date is 5 days in the future.
           $date += $delta;

           #Small clock. Not too accurate, but still ;)
           while(1)
           {
                   #Add one second to the date. (same as $date + 1)
                   $date++;
                   print "$date\n";
                   sleep(1);
           }

INHERITANCE
   A useful way of using Date::Handler in your code is to implement that a
   class that ISA Date::Handler. This way you can overload methods through
   the inheritance tree and change the object's behaviour to your needs.

   Here is a small example of an overloaded class that specifies a default
   timezone different than the machine's timezone.

           #!/usr/bin/perl
           package My::Date::Handler;

           use strict;
           use vars qw(@ISA $VERSION);

           use Date::Handler;
           @ISA = qw(Date::Handler);

           use constant DEFAULT_TIMEZONE => 'Europe/Moscow';
           use consant DEFAULT_LOCALE => 'russian';

           sub TimeZone
           {
                   my ($self) = @_;

                   my $time_zone = $self->SUPER::TimeZone(@_);

                   return $time_zone if defined $time_zone;

                   return $self->DEFAULT_TIMEZONE();
           }

           1;
           __END__

USING INTUITIVE MONTH CALCULATIONS (off by default)
   Date::Handler contains a feature by witch a date handler object can use
   intuitive month calculation. This means that Date::Handler will
   compensate for month overflows during delta operations.

   For example, if you have a date handler that is 2002/01/30, and you add
   to it a delta of 1 month, standard Date::Handler object will give you a
   new object that is 2002/03/02. This is because POSIX will compensate for
   the month overflow and add 2 days to the date because February does not
   have a 29 or 30th in 2002. Date::Handler can compensate for that by
   using the INTUITIVE_MONTH_CALCULATIONS constant. (this is turned off by
   default).

   This constant can be turned on during overloading (inheritance):

           use constant INTUITIVE_MONTH_CALCULATIONS => 1;

   Turning this constant on will tell Date::Handler to follow track of
   month overflow during operations. This will make it so that adding a
   month to 2002/01/30 will bring you to 2002/02/28. Adding another month
   to this will bring you (with intuition) to 2002/03/30, because
   Date::Handler keeps track of the "intuitive" day of the month.

   Using INTUITIVE_MONTH_CALCULATIONS will also make it possible to pass an
   "intuitive_day" key to the new() constructor in order to simulate a
   previous addition.

           i.e.

           my $date = Date::Handler->new({
                                   date => [2002,02,28,1,0,0,0],
                                   time_zone => 'America/Montreal',
                                   intuitive_day => '30',
           });

           my $onemonth = Date::Handler::Delta->new([0,1,0,0,0,0]);

           print ($date + $onemonth)."\n";

   In this example, the start date of 2002/02/28 with intuitive_day set to
   30 will make it so that adding 1 month to the date will bring us to
   march 30th. Note that INTUITIVE_MONTH_CALCULATIONS will only affect
   month/day calculations and no time modifications will be applied.

USING INTUITIVE_DST_ADJUSTMENTS (off by default)
   Date::Handler provides a facility called INTUITIVE_DST_ADJUSTMENTS. This
   is implemented via an inherited constant, like the other options above.
   When INTUITIVE_DST_ADJUSTMENTS are turned on, Date::Handler will
   compensate for day light savings changes. For example, 2002/04/07 1AM +
   1 day would give you 2002/04/08 1AM instead of 2AM. Note that
   INTUITIVE_DST_ADJUSTMENTS will not apply this compensation when the
   exact "turn over" date/time is detected. For example, 2002/04/06 2AM + 1
   day would give you 2002/04/07 3AM because we don't compensate for this
   specific case.

USING INTUITIVE_TIME_CALCULATIONS (off by default)
   Date::Handler provides yet another facility to add intuitive date
   calculations. By using INTUITIVE_TIME_CALCULATIONS (via inherited
   constant), Date::Handler will "remember" that it compensated for a DST
   adjustment and try to compensate for it.

   For example, 2002/04/06 2AM + 1day would give you 2002/04/07 3AM. Adding
   a day to this date under INTUITIVE_TIME_CALCULATIONS would give you
   2002/04/08 2AM because Date::Handler remembers it compensated for day
   light savings.

   Combining INTUITIVE_DST_ADJUSTMENTS, INTUITIVE_MONTH_CALCULATIONS and
   INTUITIVE_TIME_CALCULATIONS will give a behaviour closer to the way
   humans expect the module to react.

   This can be very useful to make date calculations a little more
   "humanized".

   The intuitive "hour" can be faked by passing it to the new()
   constructor:

           package MyDateHandler;

           use strict;
           use base qw(Date::Handler);

           use constant INTUITIVE_DST_ADJUSTMENTS => 1;
           use constant INTUITIVE_TIME_CALCULATIONS => 1;

           1;

   then:

           my $date = MyDateHandler->new({
                           date => [2002,04,08,5,0,0],
                           time_zone => 'America/Montreal',
                           intuitive_hour => 2,
           });

NOTES ON TIME ZONES, LOCALISATION AND FORMATTING
   Date::Handler supports locales using POSIX setlocale() functions. The
   allowed values for the locale are listed (on most unix system) using the
   `locale -a` command. The Date::Handler defaults to "en_US" for it's
   locale when no locale are passed to the constructor. The constant
   DEFAULT_LOCALE can be overloaded to change this behaviour. Special note
   that the locales "english" and "en" are not implemented on most linux
   (Red Hat here) systems. You need to use the locale en_US, en_GB etc etc.

   Date::Handler supports time zones using POSIX tzset() and tzname()
   functions. The allowed values for the time_zone key are listed (on linux
   systems) by look at the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory. The Date::Handler
   default to "GMT" for it's time zone when to time_zone key are passed to
   the constructor. The constant DEFAULT_TIME_ZONE can be overloaded to
   change this behaviour.

   Date::Handler's formatting is provided by POSIX's strfmtime() function.
   The allowed parameters to the TimeFormat() method can be listed (on most
   unix system) using `man strftime`. By default, Date::Handler uses the
   format string '%c' to represent itself in most cases. The constant
   DEFAULT_FORMAT_STRING can be overloaded to change this behaviour.

OTHER DATE::HANDLER MODULES
   Here is a brief description of the other modules in this package.

 Using Date::Handler::Delta objects
   To go forward or backward in time with a date object, you can use the
   Date::Handler::Delta objects. These objects represent a time lapse
   represented in months and seconds. Since Date::Handler uses operator
   overloading, you can 'apply' a Delta object on an absolute date simply
   by using '+' and '-'.

   Example:

           #A Delta of 1 year.
           my $delta = new Date::Handler::Delta([1,0,0,0,0,0]);

           my $date = new Date::Handler({ date => time } );

           #$newdate is now one year in the furure.
           my $newdate = $date+$delta;

   Refer to the Date::Handler::Delta(1) documentation for more on Deltas.

 Using Date::Handler::Range objects
   Range objects are used to define a time range using a start date and a
   delta object. Can be useful to calculate recurrences of events and event
   overlap.

   Example:

           A simple range for an event of 3 days:

           my $range = Date::Handler::Range->new({
                                                           date => Date::Handler->new({ date => time() }),
                                                           delta => Date::Handler::Delta->new([0,0,3,0,0,0]),
                                                   });

           print "This event starts on ".$range->StartDate()." and end on ".$range->EndDate()."\n";

   See perldoc Date::Handler::Range(1) for more information on how to use
   Date::Handler::Range objects.

BUGS (known)
   Dates after 2038 are not handled by this module yet. (POSIX)

   Dates before 1970 are not handled by this module. (POSIX)

   If you find bugs with this module, do not hesitate to contact the
   author. Your comments and rants are welcomed :)

SUPPORT, CVS AND BLEEDING VERSIONS
   For the latest developments,changes files, history, CVS access and more,
   please visit:

   http://labs.turbulent.ca/

   Please, if you use this module in a project, let me know!

   Commercial support for this module is available, please contact me for
   more info!

TODO
   Add support for dynamic locale using perllocales functions. This will
   plugin directly with the use of strftime in the Date::Handler and
   provide locales.

   Add a list of supported timezones in the Constants class.Just didnt
   around to do it yet :) Feel free :) If you have patches, recommendations
   or suggestions on this module, please come forward :)

COPYRIGHT
   Copyright(c) 2001 Benoit Beausejour <[email protected]>

   All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute
   it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

   Portions Copyright (c) Philippe M. Chiasson <[email protected]>

   Portions Copyright (c) Szab�, Bal�zs <[email protected]>

   Portions Copyright (c) Larry Rosler

AUTHOR
   Benoit Beausejour <[email protected]>

CONTRIBUTORS
   * Ron Savage <[email protected]>
   * Roland Rauch <[email protected]>
   * Patrick Bradley <[email protected]>
   * Phillippe M. Chiasson <[email protected]>
   * Jamie Letual <[email protected]>
   * Ethan Joffe <[email protected]>
   * Mathew Robertson <[email protected]>
   * Sivaguru Sankaridurg <[email protected]>

SEE ALSO
   Class::Date(1). Time::Object(1). Date::Calc(1). perl(1).

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