Subject: RE: Duration: Does 1 day == 24 hours?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 14:38:12 -0600

> But what *are* the semantics? They're not defined in RFC-2445 
> or in ISO-8601.
> 
> > The DURATION value type allows a mix
> > of clock and calendar periods. They use different scales.
> 
> That cannot be inferred from the text, though.  

I think it definitely CAN be inferred from the text. Your point is that it
should be more explicit.

>The only 
> units allowed in 2445
> are the ones that are well-defined multiples of one second; 
> to me, the obvious
> implication is that any duration can be expressed as some 
> integer number of
> seconds.

This just isn't true. The section on DURATION specifies that the value can
be either one based on the productions of DUR-DATE or DUR-TIME or DUR-WEEK.
Even in the syntax, there is the ability to differentiate the DURATION
values into a choice of those based on the date, time or week scales.

In addition, we have possible values for DTSTART, DTEND and other properties
that are more than time based (e.g., your assertion that the values are just
based on seconds). For example, you can set the value to these properties to
be based on DATE values.

-- Frank

---

From: John Stracke <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 16:28:47 -0500

[email-masked] wrote:

> I think it definitely CAN be inferred from the text.

How? Where is the text that implies that P1D is not the same thing as PT24H?

> values into a choice of those based on the date, time or week scales.

But the units used on the different scales are interconvertible, meaning that
the different scales can be treated as equivalent.  Unless you can point to
text that says otherwise, it is entirely reasonable to assume they *are*
equivalent.

--
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|John Stracke    | http://www.ecal.com |My opinions are my own.|
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