Date Computation Problem Statement - jurisgpt/GrizlyUDVacator GitHub Wiki

Problem Statement

In calendaring and deadline‑driven applications—such as court‑deadline calculators—date handling is a critical foundation. However, most codebases suffer from inconsistent date representations:

  • Multiple Input Types: Functions accept str, datetime.datetime, or datetime.date interchangeably.
  • Redundant Conversions: Dates are frequently converted to strings and back, risking format mismatches.
  • Scattered Logic: Parsing, validation, and business rules are implemented in different modules without a single source of truth.

These inconsistencies lead to:

  1. Off‑by‑One and Mis‑Calculation Errors
    A mis‑parsed string or an unexpected datetime object can shift computed deadlines by days—potentially causing missed court filings or regulatory non‑compliance.

  2. Hidden Bugs & Maintenance Overhead
    Redundant conversions and undocumented format assumptions make the code fragile, increase technical debt, and slow down feature development.

  3. Lack of Verifyable Correctness
    Without a centralized API and strict typing, it is nearly impossible to achieve deterministic behavior across unit, integration, and simulation tests.

Goal: Define a single, canonical date type (datetime.date), centralize all parsing and validation logic, and enforce strict typing and test coverage—thereby eliminating mission‑critical date errors once and for all.