NYCPHP Meetup

[inforequest]

csnyder chsnyder-at-gmail.com |nyphp dev/internal group use| wrote:

>On 3/28/06, inforequest <1j0lkq002 at sneakemail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>There has been some debate n NYPHP in the past about using "event" as a
>>basic data structure for websites. For example, given an event data
>>construct (what, when,where,whom,about/related to, comments about, etc)
>>one could build many common MVC websites.
>>    
>>
>
>Some observations:
>
>"When" is typically two values, start and end. To find the events in a
>given month, you look up all the events that start and/or end within
>the month, or that start before and end after the month.
>
>But... recurring events are a difficult problem with this model. You
>can insert all the instances of a recurring event for the next 5
>years, and group them together so they can be changed as a group. It
>is not so difficult to imagine a situation where that gets really
>ugly.
>  
>
Actually, isn't "when" really just one value - offset from defined zero? 
"duration" is a second attribute of the event.  And daylight savings etc 
are just UI considerations... localization details even. Complications 
of the sort you describe arise in the face of "expectations" for the app 
(be it calendar or schedule, etc). The data is still start, duration, 
venue, etc.

I would support the app's expectations with tables derived from the 
data....often okay to regenerate periodically as opposed to real-time.

I am thinking I can do a helluvalot with this generalized data model. Am 
I crazy??