DDATE(1)		   Emperor Norton Utilities		      DDATE(1)



NAME
       ddate - converts Gregorian dates to Discordian dates

SYNOPSIS
       ddate [+format] [date]

DESCRIPTION
       ddate prints the date in Discordian date format.

       If  called  with  no arguments, ddate will get the current system date,
       convert this to the Discordian date format and print this on the  stan
       dard  output.  Alternatively,  a Gregorian date may be specified on the
       command line, in the form of a numerical day, month and year.

       If a format string is specified, the Discordian date will be printed in
       a format specified by the string. This mechanism works similarly to the
       format string mechanism of date(1), only almost completely differently.
       The fields are:

       %A     Full name of the day of the week (i.e., Sweetmorn)

       %a     Abbreviated name of the day of the week (i.e., SM)

       %B     Full name of the season (i.e., Chaos)

       %b     Abbreviated name of the season (i.e., Chs)

       %d     Ordinal number of day in season (i.e., 23)

       %e     Cardinal number of day in season (i.e., 23rd)

       %H     Name of current Holyday, if any

       %N     Magic  code  to prevent rest of format from being printed unless
	      today is a Holyday.

       %n     Newline

       %t     Tab

       %X     Number of days remaining until X-Day. (Not valid if  the	SubGe
	      nius options are not compiled in.)

       %{

       %}     Used  to	enclose the part of the string which is to be replaced
	      with the words "St. Tibs Day" if the current day is  St.	Tibs
	      Day.

       %.     Try it and see.













EXAMPLES
       % ddate
       Sweetmorn, Bureaucracy 42, 3161 YOLD

       % ddate +Today is %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H
       Today is Sweetmorn, the 42nd of Bureaucracy, 3161.

       % ddate +"Its %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H" 26 9 1995
       Its Prickle-Prickle, the 50th of Bureaucracy, 3161.
       Celebrate Bureflux

       % ddate +"Todays %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H" 29 2 1996
       Todays St. Tibs Day, 3162.


BUGS
       ddate(1)  will produce undefined behaviour if asked to produce the date
       for St. Tibs day and its format string does not contain the St.	Tibs
       Day delimiters %{ and %}.


NOTE
       After  X-Day  passed  without  incident,  the Church of the SubGenius
       declared that it had got the year upside down - X-Day  is  actually  in
       8661 AD rather than 1998 AD.  Thus, the True X-Day is Cfn 40, 9827.


AUTHOR
       Original   program   by	 Druel	 the   Chaotic	 aka   Jeremy  Johnson
       (mpython@gnu.ai.mit.edu)
       Major  rewrite  by  Lee	H:.  O:.  Smith,  KYTP,  aka   Andrew	Bulhak
       (acb@dev.null.org)
       Five tons of flax.


DISTRIBUTION POLICY
       Public domain. All rites reversed.


SEE ALSO
       date(1),
       http://www.subgenius.com/
       Malaclypse the Younger, Principia Discordia, Or How I Found Goddess And
       What I Did To Her When I Found Her




			      59 Bureaucracy 3161		      DDATE(1)