[Dev] Re: Recurrance discussion

[Jeffrey Harris]

Hi Phillip,

> Strawman proposal 1: implement occurrences as real items, created when
> the rule is modified.  Require users to *always* include an explicit end
> date; i.e., no unbounded recurrences.

[snip]

The biggest con for this is that users are very likely to import or
share indefinitely recurring events.  So I don't think we can avoid
indefinite recurrence in 0.6.

> Strawman proposal 2: The same as proposal 1, but allow users to not set
> an end date.  If no end date is supplied, generate a *fixed* number of
> repetitions using a heuristic based on the frequency of occurrence.  For
> example, for annual occurrences you could schedule 10 or 12 years in
> advance, while we might limit daily occurrences to a year's worth.  This
> caps the cost of generating occurrences, but increases complexity by
> requiring the heuristic logic, and by requiring an alarm or something of
> that sort associated with each recurrence to automatically add one
> *more* occurrence each time one is consumed, thereby keeping the
> "sliding window" always the same size.

Do you see a particular advantage to this approach over generating
occurrences 1 year + magnitude of reminder delta in advance?

I'm partial to just generating new occurrences daily at midnight or
first start up.  It seems more deterministic to me.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey