how to migrate to std.datetime

[Russel Winder]

On Sun, 2011-05-08 at 23:52 -0700, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
[ . . . ]
> I could look at writing an article on moving from std.date to std.datetime, I 
> suppose. We already have an article contest going, and it would make sense to 
> put such an article on the site.

I suspect many people would be happy if you did do this, but I was
thinking more copy and paste the material into a wiki page and then let
everyone who has knowledge/interest help refine it.

> I don't really have anywhere online that I can post anything myself though, 
> let alone links to whatever newsgroup posts might be useful for understanding 
> std.datetime.

If there isn't a D/Phobos wiki then now is the time for Those in
Authority, to make one so that this sort of material can go up there and
be "crowd edited".

> I would have hoped that the documentation in std.datetime would have been 
> sufficient, but either it isn't and/or it's just too overwhelming for some 
> folks, given some of the things that have been posted. There haven't been a 
> lot of questions about it though since it got into Phobos, so either a fair 
> number of people are understanding it well enough, or they aren't using it.

I'd put it another way.  For someone coming new to using D dates and
times, as long as they are told in no uncertain terms not to use
std.date but to use std.datetime then I am fairly sure the documentation
is good and complete.  It was for me and what I needed.  Though I do
find the indexing of the functions by signature something of a turn off
as the signatures look so ugly and frightening.

The problem here is though people who are D knowledgeable and have used
std.date.  These people are in need of an incremental update so as to
help evolve their current knowledge to the new knowledge.  Definitely
analogous to incremental backups.  If people are force to take their
current knowledge and the new knowledge and do the diffs, interpolations
and extrapolations themselves, then they see this as a barrier,
sometimes of mountainous rather than molehillish proportions.  If these
people are offered a "diff" route from old to new, it turns the barrier
into a bit of a pimple, something that can be squeezed out of existence
quickly.  Updating documents definitely smooth updating.

> Part of the problem with better explaining std.datetime though is that it's 
> pretty much all in the documentation, so it's not generally clear what I 
> should be explaining further without people asking specific questions.

Definitely, questions are indicators to lines of reasoning that need
explanation.  Without these questions then it is nigh on impossible to
guess what material to offer.  Another reason for a wiki that everyone
can write to.  Questions can be asked, answered, referred to, refined,
etc.  Email is great for the initial question and initial short answer,
it is not a good medium for knowledge! 

-- 
Russel.
=============================================================================
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel at russel.org.uk
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder
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