Date::Calc DST - is this a bug?

[fbicknel]

See my reply to myself.... but I'll leave this here as a model of what not to do. *blush*

Is this a bug or is it not documented properly?

Documentation for Gmtime() says:

The daylight savings time flag ("$dst") will be "-1" if this
information is not available on your system, "0" for no daylight
savings time (i.e., winter time) and "1" when daylight savings
time is in effect.

This isn't clear: if it means "dst is in effect NOW on your system", then it accurately depicts what happens when you try this code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use Date::Calc qw (:all);

$summer_time = Mktime (2012, 7, 3, 1, 48, 0);
$winter_time = Mktime (2012, 12, 3, 1, 48, 0);
($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst)
    = Gmtime ($summer_time);
print "Summer: $year,$month,$day,$hour,$min,$sec,$doy,$dow,$dst\n";
($year,$month,$day,$hour,$min,$sec,$doy,$dow,$dst)
    = Gmtime ($winter_time);
print "Winter: $year,$month,$day,$hour,$min,$sec,$doy,$dow,$dst\n";
__END__
Results:

Summer: 2012,7,3,5,48,0,185,2,0
Winter: 2012,12,3,6,48,0,338,1,0

Note the last $dst value in each list returned is always 0. My guess is that if I wait about 6 months and try again, it will always return 1.

What I was hoping for was a flag that was set based on the time requested, as apparently all the other fields in the input portray.

I mean, what good would it do if I asked for Gmtime ($winter_time) and it returned the current year instead of the year I asked for? :)

[ww]

You can stop blushing: Re^2: Move along, nothing to see here . . . (and numerous other nodes) or Super Search for "teddy bear."

[fbicknel]

How about that. Read a little further and Localtime() provides the same flag. But this time it works as expected.

Sorry, I jumped on the first thing I found, now.