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some degree of date math simply ($tomorrow = $today + 24*60*60;).
(Beware of date math across days that change to or from daylight
saving time.)

 * Parses many different formats of dates
 * Flexible formatting using POSIX strftime() format specifiers.
 * Limited internationalization support.
 * Limited date math support.
 * Unknown support for dates outside [1970-2038]

=head2 Date::Calc

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Date::Calc

Powerful, fast manipulation of dates.

 * No explicit support for parsing or formatting dates.
 * Non-perlstyle function names (internal caps, as in Add_Delta_YMD())
 * Powerful, fast support for date math
 * Support for all A.D. dates [1-9999]

=head2 Date::Manip

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Date::Manip

The most powerful and slowest (all perl, large)
of date manipulation packages.
Includes many obscure calendar-related functions.

 * Powerful parsing many different formats of dates
 * No explicit support for or formatting dates.
 * Non-perlstyle function names (internal caps, as in ParseDate())
 * Powerful support for date math (but slower than Date::Calc)
 * Support for all A.D. dates [1-9999]
 * Function support for holidays, business days, etc.

=head2 HTTP::Date

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=HTTP::Date

This module is part of the larger libwww-perl bundle.
It seems to parse a wider variety of dates than Date::Parse,
but it is focused on those date formats which occur in HTTP headers.
It only formats dates in the format preferred by HTTP headers.

=head2 Time::HiRes

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Time::HiRes

Completely separate from the modules above, which deal with dates,
there is sometimes a need to deal with times at the sub-second
level.  Time::HiRes works in seconds and milliseconds.
It is particularly useful in timing sections of code.

=head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED SOLUTIONS

An alternative to the functional solutions described above is an
object-oriented solution that involves creating and manipulating
true "datetime" objects.

=head2 DateTime

 http://datetime.perl.org/
 http://datetime.perl.org/modules.html
 http://search.cpan.org/~drolsky/DateTime/
 http://search.cpan.org/~drolsky/DateTime/lib/DateTime.pm

The latest significant entrant (and quite promising) in the perl
date/time area is Datetime.pm.  It attempts to be the definitive
date/time module for perl, building on the work of Time::Piece
and Class::Date. 

Furthermore, the DateTime module is not alone.  Rather, it is
part of a project where many date/time developers collaborate
for an entire framework of date/time modules.

 * OO interface
 * Parsing of dates provided by DateTime::Format::* modules
 * Flexible formatting using POSIX strftime() format specifiers.
   (formatting done automatically during object stringification)
 * Limited internationalization support.
 * Good date math support.
 * Unknown support for dates outside [1970-2038]
 * Moderate support on Win32 platform.

=head2 Time::Piece [Time::Object, Time::Seconds]

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Time::Object

On the perl5-porters mailing
Larry Wall described some thoughts on how dates and times might become part
of the Perl language and sketched out an object-oriented interface.

 http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2000-01/msg00241.html

This interface was implemented in the Time::Piece package.

 * OO interface
 * No explicit support for parsing dates.
 * Flexible formatting using POSIX strftime() format specifiers.
 * Limited internationalization support.
 * Limited date math support.
 * Unknown support for dates outside [1970-2038]
 * Unsupported on Win32 platform.

=head2 Class::Date, Class::Date::Rel

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Class::Date

This class started with Time::Object and was enhanced.

 * Some native support for parsing dates.
 * Uses Date::Parse internally for extended date parsing
 * Better date math support.
 * Supported on Win32 platform.

=head2 Date::Simple

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Date::Simple

This is a simple, object-oriented class that deals with
dates only (not times at all).

=head2 Date::Calc::Object

 http://search.cpan.org/search?module=Date::Calc::Object

Date::Calc has an object-oriented interface.

=head1 FURTHER RESEARCH

For further research on Date and Time modules in Perl, you can
subscribe to the datetime@perl.org mailing list.

 http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi?name=datetime

You can read up on future directions
for Perl and date/time support here.