calendar *dependent* events scenarii

All,
Here is the updated calendar dependent events scenarii, incorporating Tex's 
comments.
Andrea


Scenario I-0?? Calendar-dependent events

A Web service is set up to calculate a calendar date and send it back to
the requester.  The date is calendar-dependent but is not associated with
a particular locale or timezone.  The service may need to take in
information such as the calendar type, year, and related descriptive
information.

Scenario A:  A service calculates the date for Easter, Passover, or
Ramadan for any given year in a specified calendar type.  All these
holidays are strictly calendar-dependent; they are calculated based on
certain calendar and lunar events, as well as historical tables.  The
SOAP request would contain a holiday, a year, and a parameter indicating
the calendar type, e.g. "Gregorian".  In addition, some other data may
be required, such as for Easter there may be a parameter specifying
"Orthodox" or "Western".  The Web service would in turn calculate the
appropriate date and send a message back to the requester with the
calculated date.  It may seem as though the calendar type is a part of
the locale information, but locale information is typically associated
with the end user, and there's far more information in a locale than is
needed. In this case, the calendar type is irrelevant to the locale,
since the requester may be looking for information unrelated to user
preferences or system settings.

Scenario B:  A service calculates historical dates in different parts of
the world and returns an equivalent Gregorian calendar date to the
requester.  The SOAP request would contain a date and its country of
origin.  For example, a request might have the date 1812/08/26 and the
origin "Russia".  Russia was not using the Gregorian calendar at that
time, so that date is not equivalent to the same date in places such as
England or Germany.  While this may look like it is part of the locale due to 
the country of origin, it should not be treated as such.  Locales are
typically associated with the end user, not with a piece of data.  A
locale contains far more information than is relevant to this
calculation as well.

Scenario C:  A service calculates Chinese New Year for any non-Chinese
calendar type.  The SOAP request would include a parameter with the
calendar type, such as "Gregorian", "Hebrew", or "Japanese Imperial".
The calendar type is again irrelevant to the locale, since the
requester may be looking for information unrelated to user preferences
or system settings.

Received on Monday, 24 November 2003 21:11:11 UTC