I must disagree. Many people feel that
Date::Calc
is big and clunky. It is large, but the job it
is performing it complicated and intricate.
If performance is of maximal importance
then I agree that you would be better off rolling a high-performance
date routine that is
custom-tailored to your needs
(but if performance is your #1 concern,
you probably shouldn't
be using Perl either).
However, if reliability and correctness of your code is
important, then you should use Date::Calc.
If you have spent any time doing serious
date logic, you will
understand the benefits of using a
well-tested, full-featured
library of date routines such as
Date::Calc. Why re-invent
the wheel, especially if you don't have to.
Date arithmetic
is particularly nasty (if you want to know just how nasty,
check out
Calenderical Calculations by Dershowitz and
Reingold)
and very easy to get wrong or introduce subtle errors.
Heed
my advice and always try Date::Calc
(or another well-written and
properly tested date module) before falling-back
and writing your own.