Re: Preliminary Proposal for calculator for suntimes / moontimes

On 27 Aug 2003 at 11:08, Alexander Wirtz wrote: > while working on the weather-class, I wrote two other classes, at the > moment called Date_Sun and Date_Moon > http://www.pc4p.net/downloads/Sun.phps > http://www.pc4p.net/downloads/Moon.phps > > The problem now is, how to call the package as a whole? Pierre > suggested to include them directly in Date, but I'm not convinced, > that this is a good idea, I would like to keep them seperate. I'm well > aware, that PHP5 has implemented suntime-functions, so my suggestion > is, to keep two different packages Date_Sun and -_Moon, so that it is > easier to trash Sun afterwards. That means maintaining two packages, > but that's ok with me. > > Please take into consideration, that I want to use them both as an > optional package in Science_Weather (or what it will be called...) I'd also prefer to see them inside Date. Adding two additional files seems okay - but there is no need for a separate package - or even two. Please talk to the devs of Date about an integration. About suntime-functions in PHP5: I believe even when PHP5 comes out (at the end of the year) there will still be some (many?) PHP4 system out there for a long time. For sure the php-functions will be faster. So could you maybe implement detection of the php5-functions and if they exist make Sun / Moon be a wrapper for the PHP5-functions? This way your packages would be independent of PHP4/5 but could take advantage of the fast, internal PHP5-functions (written in C). About your code: Could you maybe do some cleanups in the _doCalculation-code? Especially about all those variables. Variables should generally start with a low-case-character afaik - and more meaningful names might also be a good idea :-) This would make it easier to search for errors (if any might arrise) or study the function of your class. Maybe use some more constants as well to clear of all those integer- / double-values in your calculations. Generally: I like what you propose - and I know that they might even be useful for other people. But I'm willing to delay my vote until the code has been cleared up and you hopefully have arranged integration into Date. Stefan