README for Time::Duration

NAME

Time::Duration -- rounded or exact English expression of durations

SYNOPSIS

Example use in a program that ends by noting its runtime:

  my $start_time = time;
  use Time::Duration;
  
  # then things that take all that time, and then ends:
  print "Runtime: ", duration(time - $start_time), ".\n";

Example use in a program that reports age of a file:

  use Time::Duration;
  my $file = 'that_file';
  my $age = SomeModule::get_modtime($file);
  print "$file was modified ", ago($age);

DESCRIPTION

This is a Perl6 port of Time::Duration module for Perl 5.

This module provides functions for expressing durations in rounded or exact terms.

In the first example in the Synopsis, using duration($interval_seconds):

If the `time - $start_time' is 3 seconds, this prints "Runtime: 3 seconds.". If it's 0 seconds, it's "Runtime: 0 seconds.". If it's 1 second, it's "Runtime: 1 second.". If it's 125 seconds, you get "Runtime: 2 minutes and 5 seconds.". If it's 3820 seconds (which is exactly 1h, 3m, 40s), you get it rounded to fit within two expressed units: "Runtime: 1 hour and 4 minutes.". Using duration_exact instead would return "Runtime: 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 40 seconds".

In the second example in the Synopsis, using ago($interval_seconds):

If the age is -3, and you'll get the equally and appropriately surprising "file was modified 3 seconds from now."

FUNCTIONS

This module provides all the following functions, which are all exported by default when you call `use Time::Duration;'.

duration($seconds)
duration($seconds, $precision)

Returns English text expressing the approximate time duration of abs(precision || 2' expressed units. (That is, duration(seconds,2).)

For example, duration(120) or duration(-120) is "2 minutes". And duration(0) is "0 seconds".

The precision figure means that no more than that many units will be used in expressing the time duration. For example, 31,629,659 seconds is a duration of exactly 1 year, 1 day, 2 hours, and 59 seconds (assuming 1 year = exactly 365 days, as we do assume in this module). However, if you wanted an approximation of this to at most two expressed (i.e., nonzero) units, it would round it and truncate it to "1 year and 1 day". Max of 3 expressed units would get you "1 year, 1 day, and 2 hours". Max of 4 expressed units would get you "1 year, 1 day, 2 hours, and 59 seconds", which happens to be exactly true. Max of 5 (or more) expressed units would get you the same, since there are only four nonzero units possible in for that duration.

duration_exact($seconds)

Same as duration(seconds. For example, duration_exact(31629659) returns "1 year, 1 day, 2 hours, and 59 seconds later", which is exactly true.

ago($seconds)
ago($seconds, $precision)

For a positive value of seconds, this prints the same as duration($seconds, [$precision]) . ' ago''. For example, ago(120) is "2 minutes ago". For a negative value of seconds, this prints the same as duration(precision]) . ' from now''. For example, ago(-120) is "2 minutes from now". As a special case, ago(0) returns "right now".

ago_exact($seconds)

Same as ago(seconds.

from_now($seconds)
from_now($seconds, $precision)
from_now_exact($seconds)

The same as ago(-seconds, seconds). For example, from_now(120) is "2 minutes from now".

later($seconds)
later($seconds, $precision)

For a positive value of seconds, this prints the same as duration($seconds, [$precision]) . ' later''. For example, ago(120) is "2 minutes later". For a negative value of seconds, this prints the same as duration(precision]) . ' earlier''. For example, later(- 120) is "2 minutes earlier". As a special case, later(0) returns "right then".

later_exact($seconds)

Same as later(seconds.

earlier($seconds)
earlier($seconds, $precision)
earlier_exact($seconds)

The same as later(-seconds, seconds). For example, earlier(120) is "2 minutes earlier".

I18N/L10N NOTES

Little of the internals of this module are English-specific. See source and/or contact me if you're interested in making a localized version for some other language than English.

BACKSTORY

I wrote the basic ago()' function for use in Infobot (http://www.infobot.org'), because I was tired of this sort of response from the Purl Infobot:

  me> Purl, seen Woozle?
  <Purl> Woozle was last seen on #perl 20 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes
  and 40 seconds ago, saying: Wuzzle!

I figured if it was 20 days ago, I don't care about the seconds. So once I had written `ago()', I abstracted the code a bit and got all the other functions.

CAVEAT

This module calls a durational "year" an interval of exactly 365 days of exactly 24 hours each, with no provision for leap years or monkey business with 23/25 hour days (much less leap seconds!). But since the main work of this module is approximation, that shouldn't be a great problem for most purposes.

SEE ALSO

Date::Interval (Perl 5), which is similarly named, but does something rather different.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), where the character Data would express time durations like "1 year, 20 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes, and 35 seconds" instead of rounding to "1 year and 21 days". This is because no-one ever told him to use Time::Duration.

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

Copyright 2006, Sean M. Burke `[email protected]', Copyright 2013, Dagur Valberg Johannsson, all rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl 5 itself.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

AUTHOR

Original Author: Sean M. Burke, [email protected]

Perl 5 Maintainer: Avi Finkel, [email protected]

Ported and maintained in Perl 6 by: Dagur Valberg Johannsson

PREREQUISITES

This suite requires Perl 6.

Time::Duration doesn't use any nonstandard modules.

INSTALLATION

You install Time::Duration, as you would install any perl 6 module library, by running these commands:

zef install Time::Duration

See http://modules.perl6.org/ for more information.

DOCUMENTATION

POD-format documentation is included in Duration.pm. POD is readable with the 'perldoc' utility. See ChangeLog for recent changes.