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   my $version = $db->status->{code}{version};

=head2 title() method

    my $title = $db->title

Returns the version of the current database, equivalent
to $db->status->{database}{title};

=head2 version() method

    my $version = $db->version;

Returns the version of the current database, equivalent 
to $db->status->{database}{version};

=head2 date_style() method

  $style = $db->date_style();
  $style = $db->date_style('ace');
  $style = $db->date_style('java');

For historical reasons, AceDB can display dates using either of two
different formats.  The first format, which I call "ace" style, puts
the year first, as in "1997-10-01".  The second format, which I call
"java" style, puts the day first, as in "01 Oct 1997 00:00:00" (this
is also the style recommended for Internet dates).  The default is to
use the latter notation.

B<date_style()> can be used to set or retrieve the current style.
Called with no arguments, it returns the current style, which will be
one of "ace" or "java."  Called with an argument, it will set the
style to one or the other.

=head2 timestamps() method

  $timestamps_on = $db->timestamps();
  $db->timestamps(1);

Whenever a data object is updated, AceDB records the time and date of
the update, and the user ID it was running under.  Ordinarily, the
retrieval of timestamp information is suppressed to conserve memory
and bandwidth.  To turn on timestamps, call the B<timestamps()> method 
with a true value.  You can retrieve the current value of the setting
by calling the method with no arguments.

Note that activating timestamps disables some of the speed
optimizations in AcePerl.  Thus they should only be activated if you
really need the information.

=head2 auto_save()

Sets or queries the I<auto_save> variable.  If true, the "save"
command will be issued automatically before the connection to the
database is severed.  The default is true.

Examples:

   $db->auto_save(1);
   $flag = $db->auto_save;

=head2 error() method

    Ace->error;

This returns the last error message.  Like UNIX errno, this variable
is not reset between calls, so its contents are only valid after a
method call has returned a result value indicating a failure.

For your convenience, you can call error() in any of several ways:

    print Ace->error();
    print $db->error();  # $db is an Ace database handle
    print $obj->error(); # $object is an Ace::Object

There's also a global named $Ace::Error that you are free to use.

=head2 datetime() and date()

  $datetime = Ace->datetime($time);
  $today    = Ace->datetime();
  $date     = Ace->date($time);
  $today    = Ace->date([$time]);

These convenience functions convert the UNIX timestamp given by $time
(seconds since the epoch) into a datetime string in the format that
ACEDB requires.  date() will truncate the time portion.

If not provided, $time defaults to localtime().

=head1 OTHER METHODS

=head2 debug()

  $debug_level = Ace->debug([$new_level])

This class method gets or sets the debug level.  Higher integers
increase verbosity.  0 or undef turns off debug messages.

=head2 name2db()

 $db = Ace->name2db($name [,$database])

This class method associates a database URL with an Ace database
object. This is used internally by the Ace::Object class in order to
discover what database they "belong" to.

=head2 cache()

Get or set the Cache::SizeAwareFileCache object, if one has been
created.

=head2 memory_cache_fetch()

  $obj = $db->memory_cache_fetch($class,$name)

Given an object class and name return a copy of the object from the
in-memory cache.  The object will only be cached if a copy of the
object already exists in memory space.  This is ordinarily called
internally.