gistfile1.js

var DateHelper = {
  // Takes the format of "Jan 15, 2007 15:45:00 GMT" and converts it to a relative time
  // Ruby strftime: %b %d, %Y %H:%M:%S GMT
  time_ago_in_words_with_parsing: function(from) {
    var date = new Date; 
    date.setTime(Date.parse(from));
    return this.time_ago_in_words(date);
  },
  
  time_ago_in_words: function(from) {
    return this.distance_of_time_in_words(new Date, from);
  },

  distance_of_time_in_words: function(to, from) {
    var distance_in_seconds = ((to - from) / 1000);
    var distance_in_minutes = (distance_in_seconds / 60).floor();

    if (distance_in_minutes == 0) { return 'less than a minute ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes == 1) { return 'a minute ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 45) { return distance_in_minutes + ' minutes ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 90) { return 'about 1 hour ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 1440) { return 'about ' + (distance_in_minutes / 60).floor() + ' hours ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 2880) { return '1 day ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 43200) { return (distance_in_minutes / 1440).floor() + ' days ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 86400) { return 'about 1 month ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 525960) { return (distance_in_minutes / 43200).floor() + ' months ago'; }
    if (distance_in_minutes < 1051199) { return 'about 1 year ago'; }

    return 'over ' + (distance_in_minutes / 525960).floor() + ' years ago';
  }
};