#
# This software is Copyright 2005 by Elsevier Inc.  You may use it
# under the terms of the license at http://perl.plover.com/hop/LICENSE.txt .
#



###
### chronologically-2
###

## Chapter 3 section 10

@sorted_dates = sort chronologically @dates;

%m2n = 
   ( jan =>  1, feb =>  2, mar =>  3,
     apr =>  4, may =>  5, jun =>  6, 
     jul =>  7, aug =>  8, sep =>  9, 
     oct => 10, nov => 11, dec => 12, );

sub chronologically {
  my ($am, $ad, $ay) = split_date($a);
  my ($bm, $bd, $by) = split_date($b);

             $ay  <=>         $by  
  || $m2n{lc $am} <=> $m2n{lc $bm} 
  ||         $ad  <=>         $bd;
}

sub split_date {
  $_[0] =~ /(\w{3}) (\d+), (\d+)/;
}