$Id: COMPAT,v 1.1 2004/07/08 08:51:20 ianmacd Exp $


This document details differences in implementation between Ruby/Finance and
Perl's Finance::Quote:

1. Finance::Quote's currency() function accepts two arguments, source currency
   and destination currency. The source argument string may be prefixed with
   an amount, which is then used as the amount to convert instead of the
   default of 1.

   Ruby/Finance works a little differently, in that the destination currency
   must be given first, followed by the source. If a currency amount other
   than 1 is required, an optional third argument must be given:

   Finance::Quote:

    $q = Finance::Quote->new;
    $conversion_rate = $q->currency( "5.95 USD", "EUR" );

   Ruby/Finance:

    conversion_rate = Finance::Currency::convert( "EUR", "USD", 5.95 )

2. Finance::Quote has time-out and failover support. Ruby/Finance does not yet
   implement this. The same is true of user-agent header manipulation.

3. Finance::Quote caches currency conversions on stocks, but offers no way to
   disable this. Ruby/Finance allows the @cache instance variable to be set to
   'false'. It is 'true' by default, which results in a time saving of 90%,
   plus increased robustness, as fewer look-ups need to be performed.
