Introducing the chronic_cron gem
This gem which is under development aims to facilitate plain english for cron times.
e.g.
require 'chronic_cron'
Time.now #=> 2013-07-07 18:35:49 +0100
cc = ChronicCron.new('Fire at 10:15am every day')
cc.to_time #=> 2013-07-08 10:15:00 +0100
cc.to_expression #=> => "15 10 * * *"
cc.next #=> 2013-07-09 10:15:00 +0100
cc.to_time #=> 2013-07-09 10:15:00 +0100
cc = ChronicCron.new 'at 11:00 and 16:00 on every day'
cc.to_time #=> 2013-07-08 11:00:00 +0100
cc.to_expression #=> "00 11,16 * * *"
chronic_cron gem cron time expression