print POSIX::strftime("%m-%d-%Y",localtime()),"\n";

##</code><code>##

  my $start_date_string = '05-03-2003';
  my @date_parts = split('-',$start_date_string);

  # build time
  my $then_time = POSIX::mktime(
		0,0,0,
		$date_parts[1],
		($date_parts[0] -1),
		($date_parts[2] - 1900)
	);

  ### or could be mktime() from another split string here
  my $now_time = time();

  #could also use POSIX::difftime:
  #"the time difference (in seconds) between two times
  #(as returned by 'time()')"
  if( $then_time < $now_time ){
    print POSIX::ctime($then_time)
			. " was before "
			. POSIX::ctime($now_time) . "\n";
  }else{
    print POSIX::ctime($then_time)
			. " was after "
			. POSIX::ctime($now_time) . "\n";
  }