Unexpected difference when parsing with ActiveSupport time_class

[jwarchol]

I noticed odd results when parsing the same string after switching Chronic.time_class to an ActiveSupport time with zone. I've got some ideas of what might be the problem and will update this issue as I explore. Here is some code to show the issue.

require 'rubygems'
require 'chronic'
require 'active_support/time'

s = "8/1/10"

no_as_tc = Chronic.parse(s)
puts no_as_tc.class.name + "\t" + no_as_tc.inspect

Time.zone = "UTC"
Chronic.time_class = Time.zone

yes_as_tc = Chronic.parse(s)
puts yes_as_tc.class.name + "\t" + yes_as_tc.inspect

[jwarchol]

Showing the output might be nice too ;-) :

Time    Sun Aug 01 12:00:00 -0400 2010
Time    Fri, 01 Aug 0010 12:00:00 UTC +00:00

[leejarvis]

Notice these outputs:

1.8.7
-----
Time        Sun Aug 01 12:00:00 +0100 2010
Time(AR)    Fri, 01 Aug 0010 12:00:00 UTC +00:00

1.9.2
-----
Time        0010-08-01 12:00:00 +0100
Time(AR)    Sun, 01 Aug 0010 12:00:00 UTC +00:00

As you can see, on Ruby 1.9.2, all went as expected. This is because 1.8 handles years differently to 1.9. ActiveRecord is obviously doing something to ensure 1.8 works like 1.9 does.

I'm going to close this as a duplicate to #40