Wanted: application for doing convention programmes
I'm wondering if there already is such a thing. The thing I have in mind would be a sort of graphics/GUI application. It would allow the number of days (and streams/rooms) and the time constraints to be specified as a table grid (scrollable both ways; the time (vertical) should be able to support divisions at least down to 5 minute granularity to allow for different divisions of an hour), but should then be able to specify (for instance) 15 minute periods or 20 minute or hour or whatever for laying out the grid.
The items to be run (with appropriate size rectangles) would then initially be in a 'scratchpad' area and could then be dragged to the grid in appropriate positions. If it were attempted to drop an item so that it overlapped then options should allow to cancel, move the overlapped item(s) (up or down), or to drop the overlapped item(s) back to the scatchpad for repositioning. (If the option were taken to move other options this could then produce a cascade of the same options for the moved item(s) if that would force another overlap (or as a simpler implementation would simply not allow a 'move' if there wasn't room for it).
It should also be possible to 'lock' items (and 'unlock' them) for things like fixed mealtimes or events determined by other things (for instance Doctor Who at Eastercon depends on the TV schedule, some places have catered food at hotel-specified times, etc.).
It must be possible to save it in any stable state (i.e. not necessarily with conflicts outstanding, but with events still in the sandbox). I'd be happy with an XML storage form (gzipped for space if necessary).
Output and input (export and import) should be possible from several standard formats -- Excel, Word/RTF, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, HTML, PDF, XML, tab separated (for input), etc. Although supporting some of those via an intermediate format and utility would be fine (for instance always output/save in XML and run a separate utility or utilities to produce the other formats). For 'final' formats (like PDF and HTML) there should be options to select how many columns / days per page.
And ideally it should run anywhere -- Windows (at least XP and later), Linux (with X), or on a web server. Or, if anyone wants, iPad or even a phone. Which probably means implementation in Java.
I can't write it. Well, I probably could, but it would be horrible because I'm not a GUI programmer. But someone has probably already done something like this...
The items to be run (with appropriate size rectangles) would then initially be in a 'scratchpad' area and could then be dragged to the grid in appropriate positions. If it were attempted to drop an item so that it overlapped then options should allow to cancel, move the overlapped item(s) (up or down), or to drop the overlapped item(s) back to the scatchpad for repositioning. (If the option were taken to move other options this could then produce a cascade of the same options for the moved item(s) if that would force another overlap (or as a simpler implementation would simply not allow a 'move' if there wasn't room for it).
It should also be possible to 'lock' items (and 'unlock' them) for things like fixed mealtimes or events determined by other things (for instance Doctor Who at Eastercon depends on the TV schedule, some places have catered food at hotel-specified times, etc.).
It must be possible to save it in any stable state (i.e. not necessarily with conflicts outstanding, but with events still in the sandbox). I'd be happy with an XML storage form (gzipped for space if necessary).
Output and input (export and import) should be possible from several standard formats -- Excel, Word/RTF, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, HTML, PDF, XML, tab separated (for input), etc. Although supporting some of those via an intermediate format and utility would be fine (for instance always output/save in XML and run a separate utility or utilities to produce the other formats). For 'final' formats (like PDF and HTML) there should be options to select how many columns / days per page.
And ideally it should run anywhere -- Windows (at least XP and later), Linux (with X), or on a web server. Or, if anyone wants, iPad or even a phone. Which probably means implementation in Java.
I can't write it. Well, I probably could, but it would be horrible because I'm not a GUI programmer. But someone has probably already done something like this...