Re: boost support for date/time handling?

From: mfdylan (dylan_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-12-17 18:25:40

--- In boost_at_y..., "Jeff Garland" <jeff_at_c...> wrote:

> GDTL allows overriding the epoch date by replacing the calendar 
component.  For
> a standard gregorian calendar it might be possible to provide the 
epoch start as
> a template parameter.  However, this is tricky in that date 
calculation systems
> can be quite complex and to provide this along with conversions 
between calendar
> systems (say Mayan to Gregorian) might not be possible.  Of course 
you might not
> care about these alternative calendars.  Anyway, your main point is 
correct --
> there is always a problem attempting to represent an infinite 
number line in a
> finite number of bits...
> 

One other point: how do you represent, for instance, just a time but 
with no particular date?  This is surely just as common as a specific 
point in time, and is a sort of specialisation of a "recurring 
date/time": 10:30AM every day, every hour on the hour, every monday 
at noon, the 4th thursday of every november (or whenever it is all 
those strange people celebrate thanksgiving).  I'm not sure if you 
could justify having a standard library component to represent this 
concept, but it's certainly a useful abstraction, even outside of 
crontab files.

Dylan