---
date: "2004-01-15T21:54:01Z"
title: ParseDate is My Friend
---

<p>
I really like it when <em>stuff just works &trade;</em>.  Case in point: the <a href='http://www.rubycentral.com/book/lib_standard.html#ParseDate.parsedate'><code>ParseDate</code> module</a> in <a href='http://www.ruby-lang.org/'>Ruby</a>.  I'm updating <a href='/software/localfark/'>LocalFark</a> to account for the change in date syntax on <a href='http://www.fark.com/'>Fark</a> and <a href='http://www.totalfark.com/'>TotalFark</a>.  On a hunch, I just passed the entire date string scraped from {,<a href='http://www.totalfark.com/'>Total</a>}<a href='http://www.fark.com/'>Fark</a> into <code>ParseDate::parsedate</code>, and it worked exactly as advertised, simplifying the code in <a href='/software/localfark/'>LocalFark</a>.  I'm testing the changes now; if everything works okay a new version will be out in less than an hour.
</p>