README file for Date-Holidays-Abstract

$Id: README 1350 2004-05-26 11:03:29Z jonasbn $

NAME
    Date::Holidays::Abstract - an abstract class for Date::Holidays::*
    modules

SYNOPSIS
    package Date::Holidays::NN; use base qw(Date::Holidays::Abstract);

    sub holidays { ... }

    sub is_holiday { ... }

ABSTRACT
    This module is an abstract class intended for Date::Holidays::*

    The goal is to have all the existing and future modules implement the
    same methods, so they will have a uniform usage and can be used in
    polymorphic context or can be easily adapted into the Date::Holidays
    class.

DESCRIPTION
    If you want to use Date::Holidays::Abstract and want to comply with my
    suggestions to the methods that ought to be implemented, you should
    implement:

    is_holiday
    holidays

  is_holiday
    Should at least take 3 arguments:

    year, four digits
    month, between 1-12
    day, between 1-31

    The return value from is holiday is either a 1 or 0 indicating true of
    false, indicating whether the specified date is a holiday in the given
    country's national calendar.

    Additional arguments are at the courtesy of the author of the using
    module/class.

  holidays
    Should at least take one argument:

    year, four digits

    Returns a reference to a hash, where the keys are date represented as
    four digits. The two first representing month (01-12) and the last two
    representing day (01-31).

    The value for the key in question is the local name for the holiday
    indicated by the day. The resultset will of course vary depending on the
    given country's national holiday.

    Additional arguments are at the courtesy of the author of the using
    module/class.

    --

    Date::Holidays uses the requirements defined by this module and this
    module can therefor be used with success in conjunction with this.

    This is an alternative to a SUPER class. I have given a lot of thought
    to programming a SUPER class, but since creating a super class for a
    bunch of modules implementing handling of national holidays, an abstract
    class seemed a better choice.

    A proposed SUPER class for Date::Holidays::*: Date::Holidays::Super
    should implement is_holiday and holidays and expect these to be
    overloaded.

    Overloading would be necessary since nothing intelligent can be said
    about holidays without specifying a nationality (a part from holidays
    being nice but too few), and the implemented methods would be empty
    bodies returning empty result sets.

    So I am more for an abstract class and as stated I consider this class
    an experiment and I have implemented Date::Holidays::Super as an
    alternative.

    Suggestions for changes and extensions are more than welcome.

SEE ALSO
    Date::Holidays
    Date::Holidays::Super
    Date::Holidays::DE
    Date::Holidays::DK
    Date::Holidays::FR
    Date::Holidays::UK
    Date::Holiday::PT
    Date::Japanese::Holiday
    Class:Virtual

BUGS
    Please report issues via CPAN RT:

      http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Date-Holidays-Abstract

    or by sending mail to

      bug-Date-Holidays-Abstract@rt.cpan.org

AUTHOR
    Jonas B. Nielsen, (jonasbn) - "<jonasbn@cpan.org>"

COPYRIGHT
    Date-Holidays-Abstract is (C) by Jonas B. Nielsen, (jonasbn) 2004

    Date-Holidays-Abstract is released under the Artistic License See:
    (http://www.perl.com/language/misc/Artistic.html) for details.

