Re: [gobo-eiffel-develop] Date/time formatting

[Colin P. A. <co...@co...>]

>>>>> "Eric" == Eric Bezault <er...@go...> writes:

    Eric> Colin Paul Adams wrote:
    >> I have factored out the core code for the XSLT functions
    >> format-date(), format-time() and format-date-time() and moved
    >> it into the time library (this introduces dependencies for the
    >> time library on the math and regexp libraries, but I think this
    >> should not be considered a problem), and added a new function
    >> named xslt_formatted to each of DT_DATE, DT_TIME and
    >> DT_DATE_TIME.

    Eric> Introducing new dependencies should always be considered as
    Eric> a problem and should be considered with care. My first
    Eric> question is: what does this refactoring bring to the users?

It gives users powerful formatting capabilities for dates and times.

    Eric> I can see that people who don't care about XSLT and XPath
    Eric> will have more classes to compile. Will there be people who
    Eric> will use these new functionalities in the date/time library
    Eric> and not the xslt/xpath libraries?

Yes. That is why I did it.

    Eric> now to review this code that have been added to the
    Eric> date/time library, but just looking at the names of the new
    Eric> classes seems very suspicious to me (DT_XSLT_...,
    Eric> DT_XPATH_...).  

Perhaps the names are misleading.
The classes named DT_XPATH_* provide features needed by the XPath data
model for times and dates that were not currently in the corresponding
plain DT_* classes. Maybe they could be merged, or maybe I could think
of better names.

The DT_XSLT_* classes are just renamed from XM_XSLT_*.

    Eric>If it is likely that people who will use
    Eric> these new functionalities will also use the xslt/xpath
    Eric> libraries, then what about having all that in a cluster
    Eric> 'time' in these libraries?

The refactoring is precisely so you DON'T have to compile the XPath
and XSLT libraries in to your application to get these formatting
routines.

    Eric> Also, I wonder what is peculiar
    Eric> to date/time in class DT_STRING_ROUTINES. 

Yes, that's a bad one. I don't really know what to do with it.

    Eric> Likewise with
    Eric> DT_XSLT_NUMBER_ROUTINES.

The routines in their are also used by the XSLT format-number()
function. Perhaps it would be better placed in the string library.
-- 
Colin Adams
Preston Lancashire