diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index f4d89e4..e185668 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -9,5 +9,5 @@ WriteMakefile(
 				'Time::Local' => 0,
 				'Data::Dumper' => 0,
 			   },
-    'EXE_FILES'		=> [ ],
+    'EXE_FILES'		=> [ 'tsplot' ],
 );
diff --git a/TimeSeries.pm b/TimeSeries.pm
index 66a66d0..5e5243f 100644
--- a/TimeSeries.pm
+++ b/TimeSeries.pm
@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@ package TimeSeries;
 use File::Temp qw(tempfile);
 use Time::Local;
 use Data::Dumper;
+use HTTP::Date qw(parse_date);
+use Time::Local qw(timegm_nocheck);
 
-$VERSION = do { my @r=(q$Revision: 1.4 $=~/\d+/g);sprintf "%d."."%02d"x$#r,@r};
+$VERSION = do { my @r=(q$Revision: 1.5 $=~/\d+/g);sprintf "%d."."%02d"x$#r,@r};
 
 sub new {
     my ($class, %opts) = @_;
@@ -26,6 +28,27 @@ sub add {
     #print Dumper($self);
 }
 
+sub add_timestring {
+    my ($self, $timestring, @data) = @_;
+
+    my ($year, $mon, $day, $hour, $min, $sec, $zone) 
+	= parse_date($timestring);
+
+    # print STDERR "date = ($year, $mon, $day, $hour, $min, $sec, $zone)\n";
+
+    my $timestamp;
+    if (defined ($zone)) {
+	# adjust for timezone
+	my ($zs, $zh, $zm) = $zone =~ /([+-])(\d\d)(\d\d)/;
+	$min -= ($zs eq '-' ? -1 : +1) * ($zh * 60 + $zm);
+	$timestamp = timegm_nocheck($sec, $min, $hour, $day, $mon-1, $year);
+    } else {
+	$timestamp = timelocal($sec, $min, $hour, $day, $mon-1, $year);
+    }
+    # print STDERR "\$timestamp = $timestamp\n";
+    $self->add($timestamp, @data);
+}
+
 
 sub legend {
     my ($self, @legend) = @_;
@@ -271,8 +294,9 @@ sub plot {
 	$pipe .= "pnmtopng |";
     }
     if ($self->{output_format} eq "gif") {
+	# the ppm tools are noisy. Shut them up.
 	$pipe .= "ppmquant 256 2> /dev/null |" .
-	   "ppmtogif |";
+	   "ppmtogif 2> /dev/null |";
     }
     if ($self->{output_format} eq "jpeg") {
 	$pipe .= "cjpeg -sample 1x1,1x1,1x1 |";
diff --git a/t/0basic.t b/t/0basic.t
index 6d37db2..80790f1 100644
--- a/t/0basic.t
+++ b/t/0basic.t
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ $ts->add(1.002E9, 3);
 
 $test = 3;
 my $g = $ts->plot();
-print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
+# print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
 if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 4) eq "\211PNG") {
     print "ok $test\n";
 } else {
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 4) eq "\211PNG") {
 $test = 4;
 $ts->output_format("gif");
 my $g = $ts->plot();
-print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
+# print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
 if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 6) eq "GIF87a") {
     print "ok $test\n";
 } else {
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 6) eq "GIF87a") {
 $test = 5;
 $ts->output_format("jpeg");
 my $g = $ts->plot();
-print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
+# print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
 if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 10) eq "\377\330\377\340\000\020JFIF") {
     print "ok $test\n";
 } else {
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 10) eq "\377\330\377\340\000\020JFIF") {
 $test = 6;
 $ts->output_format("ps");
 my $g = $ts->plot();
-print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
+# print STDERR "length \$g = ", length($g), "\n";
 if (length($g) > 0 && substr($g, 0, 2) eq "%!") {
     print "ok $test\n";
 } else {
diff --git a/t/1parse.t b/t/1parse.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a130c90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/1parse.t
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+######################### We start with some black magic to print on failure.
+
+BEGIN { $| = 1; print "1..4\n"; }
+END {print "not ok 1\n" unless $loaded;}
+use TimeSeries;
+$loaded = 1;
+print "ok 1\n";
+
+######################### End of black magic.
+
+my $test;
+$test = 2;
+my $ts = TimeSeries->new();
+if (defined($ts)) {
+    print "ok $test\n";
+} else {
+    print "not ok $test\n";
+}
+
+$ts->legend("value");
+$test = 3;
+$ts->add_timestring('2003-07-06T17:52:33', 5);
+
+if ($ts->{data}[0][0] == 1057506753) {
+    print "ok $test\n";
+} else {
+    print "not ok $test\n";
+}
+
+$test = 4;
+$ts->add_timestring('06/Jul/2003:17:52:34 +0200', 5);
+
+if ($ts->{data}[1][0] == 1057506754) {
+    print "ok $test\n";
+} else {
+    print "not ok $test\n";
+}
+
diff --git a/tsplot b/tsplot
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..4ea0151
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tsplot
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w 
+use strict;
+use TimeSeries;
+
+my $ts = TimeSeries->new();
+while (<>) {
+    my @legend = split;
+    shift @legend;	# first must be for timestamp
+    $ts->legend(@legend);
+    last;
+}
+while (<>) {
+    my ($timestamp, @values) = split();
+    $ts->add_timestring($timestamp, @values);
+}
+
+my $g = $ts->plot();
+print $g