if (date == null)
throw new NullPointerException("null argument");
if (!(date instanceof Date))
throw new IllegalArgumentException("argument should be an instance of java.util.Date");
AttributedFormatBuffer buf = new AttributedFormatBuffer();
formatWithAttribute((Date)date, buf,
null);
buf.sync();
return new FormatCharacterIterator(buf.getBuffer().toString(),
buf.getRanges(),
buf.getAttributes());
}