About This Release

This is the first release of Date::Ethiopic submitted to CPAN.
The package was originally intended to be a part of Convert::Ethiopic::Lite
but has inflated to the point where maintenance will be easier
in its own package.  The package will be a work in progress for
quite a while.  It is fully functional for basic date conversions
and should work with any version of Perl above version 5.6.  The
package can be made to work with versions of Perl below 5.6 by
removing references to "use utf8" and "Encode", which are there
only because 5.8 turns utf8 flags off in inheritted methods (*really*
annoying).

About This Package

Date::Ethiopic offers services for the Ethiopic calendar system that
are language and culturally neutral.  In addition to Date::ICal the
class adds methods for obtaining fasting (Tsome), astrological, and
other info unique to the Ethiopic reckoning of time.

The Ethiopic context is always assumed, a Gregorian context can be
specified when an object is instantiated by adding the "calscale"
argument.  See examples/dates.pl for a demonstration.

The package contains additional classes under the Date::Ethiopic
name space that are named under locale conventions.  For example,
Date::Ethiopic::ET::am, Date::Ethiopic::ER::ti, etc.  These classes
provide localized day and month names as well as formatting.