hCalendar property list (was Re: [uf-discuss] Formatting arbitrary dates, not part of hCalendar)

[Tantek Ç elik]

On 3/6/07 12:32 PM, "Andy Mabbett" <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:

> Which, I notice is missing from:
> 
>       <http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar-cheatsheet>
> 
> What properties should it have there?

This is an excellent question, and one that has been raised before (by Andy
and others, i.e. where is the hCalendar property list), and very much needs
to be answered, as a bunch of work depends on it (the aforementioned
cheatsheet, a foldable cheatsheet, hCalendar profile, etc. etc.).

It's also a non-trivial question to answer (one excuse for why it hasn't
been thoroughly answered yet).

While the self-help-for-now answer has been to check RFC2445 iCalendar and
re-use property names per the principles outlined in hCalendar, there is a
benefit from having a precise short list, with any notes on how particular
properties may require special treatment.

To answer this for hCard took me with the help of several others like Ryan
King several hours of work analyzing each and every vCard property and
understanding its impact/utility in a "web" (HTML) context.  And iCalendar
has many more properties and subproperties than vCard.

Determining the precise property list for hCalendar requires drawing upon a
number of sources of information and experience in addition to RFC2445, e.g.
iCal-BASIC draft, ietf-calsify mailing list, both of which I've been
monitoring for sometime now.  I've also had this on my to-do list for a
little while:

http://microformats.org/wiki/to-do#hCalendar_2

Question: would the community be ok with a "draft" approximate property list
for hCalendar sooner than a comprehensive precise property list later?

My standards/implementation instincts had biased me towards the latter, but
I realize that in many ways, ironically, that's actually contrary to much of
the methodology for how we get things done in microformats in general.

Tantek