require 'chronic' causes a LoadError

[HerbCSO]

When passing in a Date argument, there is now code on line 435 that says require 'chronic'. Since trollop by design doesn't have dependencies, this is supposed to not cause an issue if the code using trollop doesn't have the chronic gem loaded. It used to be that there was no require there and this worked fine, because the NameError that would be triggered by the next line (time = Chronic.parse(param)) was rescued and everything would continue to work.

Sample setup:

• Make a directory test_trollop_date
• Make a Gemfile containing:

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'trollop', '2.1.1'

• Write a script test_trollop_date.rb with contents:

require 'trollop'

opts = Trollop::options do
  opt :date, 'Date', :type => :date, :required => true
end

• Run bundle install
• Run bundle exec ruby ./test_trollop_date.rb -d 2011-02-01

You'll get the following error:

/Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:435:in `require': cannot load such file -- chronic (LoadError)
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:435:in `parse_date_parameter'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:401:in `block (3 levels) in parse'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:401:in `map'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:401:in `block (2 levels) in parse'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:401:in `map'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:401:in `block in parse'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:378:in `each'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:378:in `parse'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:742:in `block in options'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:772:in `with_standard_exception_handling'
        from /Users/carsten.dreesbach/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p550/gems/trollop-2.1.1/lib/trollop.rb:742:in `options'
        from ./test_trollop_date.rb:3:in `<main>'

The line require 'chronic' should therefore be removed, or you should also catch the LoadError.

[HerbCSO]

Awesome, thanks @kbrock - any idea yet when the next release of trollop is likely to come out that will include this fix?