From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2009-03-14T05:42:48+09:00
Subject: Re: When was the parse method added to the Time class?

Paul wrote:
> Hi there, I've been running a particular script for a few years now
> and only just noticed that it crashes on one particular system. (I
> don't use that system very often and have run that script on it very
> rarely.)
> 
> The offending code/line in question uses the Time.parse method.
> 
> I opened a CMD prompt and tried the following:
> ----
> irb(main):001:0> d = '03/13/09 14:52'
> => "03/13/09 14:52"
> irb(main):002:0> Time.parse( d )
> NoMethodError: undefined method `parse' for Time:Class
>         from (irb):2
> ...
> irb(main):010:0> Time.methods.include? 'parse'
> => false
> ----
> 
> This system has Ruby 184-20 installed.  I know that version 186-25 and
> up have the Time.parse method and the script works fine.  However, I
> want to know what version of Ruby first included that method so that I
> can identify the minimum requirements to run the script.
> 
> Can anyone tell me how I might find out what version/release of Ruby
> first included that method?
> 
> Please let me know.  Thanks.
> 
> Paul.

It's not a ruby version issue.

Confusingly, Time.parse is only available after explicitly requiring 'time':

irb(main):001:0> Time.parse "1:23"
NoMethodError: undefined method `parse' for Time:Class
         from (irb):1
irb(main):002:0> require 'time'
=> true
irb(main):003:0> Time.parse "1:23"
=> Fri Mar 13 01:23:00 -0700 2009

-- 
        vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407