Comparison of Dates

Consider the following code in ftl:

<#assign todaysdate = "Jan 30, 2013"?date>
<#assign testdate = ("2013-01-30T11:00:00")?date("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss")>
Todaysdate: ${todaysdate}
Testdate:${testdate}
<#if todaysdate?date <= testdate?date>
It is less than
</#if>

I get 
Todaysdate: Jan 30, 2013
Testdate:Jan 30, 2013
It is less than

It turns out that the time portion is still used to compare the dates, as per the code below:

        else if(ltm instanceof TemplateDateModel && rtm instanceof TemplateDateModel) {
            TemplateDateModel ltdm = (TemplateDateModel)ltm;
            TemplateDateModel rtdm = (TemplateDateModel)rtm;
            int ltype = ltdm.getDateType();
            int rtype = rtdm.getDateType();
            if(ltype != rtype) {
                throw new TemplateException(
                    "Can not compare dates of different type. Left date is of "
                    + TemplateDateModel.TYPE_NAMES.get(ltype)
                    + " type, right date is of " 
                    + TemplateDateModel.TYPE_NAMES.get(rtype) + " type.", 
                    env);
            }
            if(ltype == TemplateDateModel.UNKNOWN) {
                throw new TemplateException(
                    "Left date is of UNKNOWN type, and can not be compared.", env);
            }
            if(rtype == TemplateDateModel.UNKNOWN) {
                throw new TemplateException(
                    "Right date is of UNKNOWN type, and can not be compared.", env);
            }
            
            Date first = EvaluationUtil.getDate(ltdm, left, env);
            Date second = EvaluationUtil.getDate(rtdm, right, env);
            comp = first.compareTo(second);
        }

Here first and second still contain the time portion since SimpleDate just returns the current date without any modifications regarding its internal type.  So I get "less than".  The problem is compounded since I am using .now, and not a hardcoded string for the full date.

Questions:

Are you guys planning on fixing this behavior?  Currently only converting a date to string, and back to a date will work.
Was this as planned?

Thanks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone hates slow websites. So do we.
Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics
Download AppDynamics Lite for free today:
http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_jan