From: mathew <meta@...>
Date: 2005-10-31T03:27:05+09:00
Subject: Re: easiest way to set future date

enspired wrote:
> I need to calculate an end date based on a start date (Date.today + #
> of trial days).
[...]
>   start_date = Date.today + (trial_days * (24 * 60 * 60))

Well for starters, you'll want to reject any method that requires 
calculating a future date using a number of seconds from a present date, 
because there's no way to know in advance the number of seconds from now 
until an arbitrary future date, and even to get approximately the right 
answer is painful because you need to deal with time zone databases.

Instead, you probably want to use a date class that keeps y-m-d triples, 
and if necessary implement your own "advance by N days, M months" algorithm.


mathew
-- 
       <URL:http://www.pobox.com/~meta/>
My parents went to the lost kingdom of Hyrule
     and all I got was this lousy triforce.