Bug#343142: 343142: -r {DATE} option could support more date formats

[Max Bowsher]

retitle 343142 -r {DATE} option could support more date formats
thanks

Early versions of Subversion used a yacc-based date parser which
supported a range of date formats similar to CVS. The yacc-based parser
was abandoned and replaced with a handwritten C parser supporting only a
few date formats a long time ago.

IIRC, the motivations for doing so were:

- It caused an additional complication in the build-system.
- Maintenance problems - far fewer people know yacc than C.

but most especially:
- No-one who was around for the discussion felt particularly strongly
about keeping the additional flexibility in date formats.


It's worth noting that many Subversion developers use -r {DATE} perhaps
once or twice a year, if even that much, with revision numbers proving a
more precise and concise way of specifying points in history.


We are willing to be persuaded otherwise, though - feel free to open a
discussion on dev{AT}subversion.tigris.org. If you do so, be sure to
explain your use-case for -r {DATE} as clearly as possible - don't
assume that people will understand a brief summarization, through shared
experience, because many of us genuinely _don't_ have any significant
experience of using -r {DATE}.


Thanks,
Max.