Calendars and recurring events

[Dave Swegen]

On Mon, Jan 28, 2002 at 10:24:25PM -0000, Jacob Smullyan wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:39:55 +0000, Dave Swegen 
>    <dswegen at software.plasmon.com> wrote:
> >Btw, would it be best to store all this data (the event list + the cache
> >list) in db (using anydb, I guess), or by using pickle?
> 
> Given the concurrency issues and the complexity which may arise from
> dealing with permissions, my inclination would be to use a good ole
> relational database.  So uncool, it's cool.

Yes, that is sort of the obvious solution. However, I'm just looking at
converting what we have at the moment (which isn't DB-backed) + adding a
few bells and whistles. So I'll probably just do simple file-locking
(we're < 20 people who are going to be using it to begin with). That,
and I'm using it as a learning experience.

Of course this is all aiming towards making a pile of Skunk components
:)

> 
> As for how to deal with repeated events, perhaps it would help if the
> repetition of an event was marked with forward and backward boundaries
> (for infinite repetition, use your favorite placeholder for infinity).
> That way you don't need to check events that can't possibly recur
> during whatever period you are interested in.  Since most recurring
> events will recur at least once a month, and you'll usually be dealing
> with a month at a time, this should be reasonably efficient,
> especially if the wheat is separated from the chaff in the database,
> and not in Python.

It's these sort of things that are really useful to know, as even if I
don't go with a DB solution now, designing the interfaces properly with
future DB access in mind should make the transition quite painless.

Cheers
	Dave