[Tutor] Assistance request when using python 'calendar'

[Alan Gauld]

Please alwaysreply ALL so it goes to the list.

On 06/08/2020 13:20, o1bigtenor wrote:
>>> Sorry - - - - the assumption seems to be that this is an occasional
>>> kind of thing.
>>
>> I'm not sure what you mean by that? Occasional in what sense?
>> As opposed to what?
> 
> Occasional in use and possibly even occasional in the demands placed
> upon the program.

>> HTML is just a presentation tool, it doesn't care too much what goes
>> into it.
> 
> That's true - - - except HTML assumes that this is something for the web.
> This is much more of a tool for use in developing business planning. This
> business really has zero desire to make its planning public.

Most businesses today have the majority of their application developed
on the web. Not necessarily the public web but on their private
intranet. It makes them easier to deploy and they can run on multiple
devices (Mac/Linux/Windows/Android/iOS etc). But even many desktop
apps are nowadays written using HTML (and maybe a little Javascript)
for presentation even if no web server is involved, again it makes the
display portable to multiple devices. HTML does not imply the web,
it implies at most a web browser.

>>> There are LOTS of calendars like that out there. They mostly all have one
>>> huge limitation - - - - they work within one (1) year - - -
>>
>> Which tells us that the vast majority of programmers never need to go
> 
> Interesting - - - - when a need is expressed for something that has been
> passed over for some 30 years the individual asking for change is considered
> the 'problematic' one. 

Not the problematic one, but the one with the problem.
Code gets written to solve a problem. The person with the problem
writes it. That's how it happens. If you have a problem that nobody
else has solved yet then you have to come up with the solution.
Nobody else will do it for you unless you pay them, in which case
it becomes their problem.

>> I don't know where you were looking because the official Python
>> tutorial includes that(Sect 9.5), as does almost every other
>> tutorial - including mine(see .sig). The technique is identical
>> to almost every other OOP language.
> 
> You are presupposing intimate acquaintance with all aspects of programming.

Not at all. A Python tutorial should be the first port of call
for anyone starting programming in python. And classes (and
subclasses are so fundamental to python programming that
every tutorial includes instructions on how to do it.

> I do not believe that I said anywhere that I was a long term practitioner of
> said skill. As EVERY skill has its jargon there is a massive stumbling block
> to the learner in even understanding what to look for.

That's a very fair point. But reading any tutorial and search for
subclass should have got you there pretty quickly. (Or even a google
search for python subclass)

>> I remember the first time I had to write an app that worked in
>> local time in sites all round the planet while keeping synchronised
>>
> Exactly  - - - - and today the that time very laboriously coded provisions
> are likely a quite common little subset of the whole and only need to be
> called - - - - no coding at all. 

Not exactly, most timezone software now provides about 37 timezones (so
not all of them) and basic functions, but to do it properly there is
still a lot of edge cases to be handled in code. But the point is that
somebody had to create the software, somebody like me with a need for
it. It wasn't written by somebody just for fun.

> someone to want something to begin the process. I see no real
> restriction to indicating that the calendar module needs some extending.

Absolutely, and in the worlds of open source you are free to extend it.
(Or hire someone to do it for you.) You can then offer those changes
back to the community. Its how it works.

> Whether that idea gets any traction - - - - -well that's not up to me but
> I would hope that the idea would be given some careful consideration
> by those tasked with developing the language.
Nobody is tasked with developing the language. This is not a product
that you submit requests and then pay to get a new version with the
changes. It is open source. You (and everyone else using it) are the
one tasked with developing the language.


-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld
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