Subject: RE: vTODO due/duration conflict

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 10:31:47 -0500

Gilles replied:
> You may want to define a VTODO "Write income tax statement" that you
> estimate will take you 4 hours to do, and which you have to complete by 
a
> legal dead line. If you calendaring application is able to sum up the
> durations of your to dos, you will have idea of your future workload. 
Once
> you has done the work, you can then record the actual time it took for a
> better estimate next year...

Ok, since you have a 'legal dead line' you have a hard DUE date/time.  If 
you know it will take you 4 hours to do then you can set the DTSTART 4 
hours prior to the DUE.  I sense you want to use DUE and DURATION instead 
of DTSTART and DURATION. We did not take that approach as you can tell by 
the text in 4.8.2.5 Duration:

            In a "VTODO" calendar component the property may be used
   to specify a duration for the to-do, instead of an explicit due
   date/time.

based on the definition of DURATION as "a positive duration of time."  For the DUE/DURATION model the time is negative in duration or at least 
in direction and we have always taken the model that time 'flow' is always 
positive. 

> I simply do not understand the rationale behind the restriction in RFC 
2445:
>                 ;either 'due' or 'duration' may appear in
>                 ; a 'todoprop', but 'due' and 'duration'
>                 ; MUST NOT occur in the same 'todoprop'

Perhaps Frank or Derik (if he is still lurking around) can give you their 
rationale for it but I think I explained it above.  In order to KISS, the 
model of how VTODOs are pegged to a real time interval was basicially 3 
scenarios:

1: They have a hard start date/time (DTSTART) and a hard due date/time 
(DUE).
2: They have a hard start date/time (DTSTART) and take a specific amount 
of time to complete (DURATION).
3: They have no hard start date/time (no DTSTART) but do have a hard due 
date/time (DUE).

For your cited example, it can simply be done using case #1 by knowing 
your time to complete it and figuring the DTSTART from the DUE date/time. 
Since there is nothing that precludes you from starting the VTODO before 
the DTSTART (ie: Who cares if you finish your taxes early?) case #3 is 
also suitable for use, depending on your your CUA handles "open starting" 
entries. 

Bruce
===========================================================================
Bruce Kahn                                INet: [email-masked]
Iris Associates                          Phone: 978.392.5335
Westford, MA, USA 01886                    FAX: and nothing but the FAX...
Standard disclaimers apply, even where prohibited by law...

---

From: Andrew Proud <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 08:21:02 +0000 (GMT)

Are there any Lotus Notes (Calendar) users on the list
?

If so. Please could you tell me if there is any way of
automating the importing of ics or vcs files. 

I am thinking of the way it works in Outlook. Outlook
upon install changes the 'File Types' association,
such that when you double-click on an ics file it is
automatically imported into your calendar.

Failing that can it be done at all ?

Many thanks 

Andy

PS MS Outlook does not perform this perfectly as per
my earlier posts. 

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