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 standard 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 mech-
       anism  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 SubGenius options are not compiled in.)

       %{

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

       %.     Try it and see.

                       59 Bureaucracy 3161                      1

DDATE(1)             Emperor Norton Utilities            DDATE(1)

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

       % ddate +'Today's %{%A, the %e of %B%}, %Y. %N%nCelebrate %H' 29 2 1996
       Today's St. Tib's Day, 3162.

BUGS
       ddate(1) will produce undefined behaviour if asked to pro-
       duce the date for St. Tib's day and its format string does
       not contain the St. Tib's 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                      2