use stringstream for formatting not for type safety
Revert "In general move variable declaration closer to use"

This reverts commit 23be15a006a03b676c5e55ce1a0d45aa58b13108.
Revert "reorder functions in file so that all the static functions can be moved into an anonymous namespace"

This reverts commit e335cc518059df0a881c15d0be79370dc9cfb42f.
Revert "don't reimplement library functionality, just because strptime doesn't exist everywhere doesn't mean we should re-invent the wheel. Particularly when std::get_time does"

This reverts commit f89d8ce33cea21347676538e3597be78d0d2e8b5.