[Cosmo-dev] Recurrence modifications, filters, and diffs

[Jeffrey Harris]

Hi Brian and Randy,

>> It would mean a lot of refactoring and a performance hit due to the
>> extra rows, joins involved.  What attributes are we talking about
>> anyway?  Is "reminderTime" the main example?
> 
> jeffrey and morgen can correct me if i'm wrong, but i think any
> modification attribute can go missing.

Yes, any attribute can go missing.

>> Yeah but we would have to handle different data types (string, number,
>> timestamp, etc), so we would have to define a unique value for each type
>> and all code using this attribute would have to be aware of these marker
>> values.
> 
> right. it's definitely stinky.

To be clear, I think sentinel values suck, I mentioned that they were a
possibility before I remembered we have integer fields.

Another possibility would be to have an extra boolean column per field
that might be missing, but that would make queries thorny.

I just mentioned to Brian on IRC that another possibility would be to
translate Missing values into the master's value when receiving records,
and translate values matching the master into Missing when sending
records.  That would complicate modification handling but might be
easier to do.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey