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Marching Events: What does iCalendar have to do with ray marching?

(pwy.io)
115 points Patryk27 | 6 comments | 16 Apr 25 12:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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ctippett ◴[17 Apr 25 19:19 UTC] No.43721023[source]▶
One of the few remaining ubiquitous open formats of the web. Unfortunately Apple still refuses to recognise *.ics files unless they're included as a Mail attachment.
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kridsdale1 ◴[17 Apr 25 20:26 UTC] No.43721829[source]▶
What do you mean? You can open them in Finder or iOS Files app and a calendar import UI will be shown.
replies(1): >>43722035 #
1. ctippett ◴[17 Apr 25 20:44 UTC] No.43722035[source]▶
Opening an .ics file on iOS from the Files app will show the events, but will not allow you to import/add them to your calendar.
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2. reaperducer ◴[17 Apr 25 22:03 UTC] No.43722714[source]▶
Opening an .ics file on iOS from the Files app will show the events, but will not allow you to import/add them to your calendar.

Not true. I just tried it on an iPhone 14 with iOS 18.4, and it works fine.

You tap on the ics icon, and it opens up the details. Tap "Done" and the event lands in the calendar you specified.

replies(1): >>43725859 #
3. Telemakhos ◴[17 Apr 25 22:35 UTC] No.43722961[source]▶
Apple's built-in Calendar program on macOS will import VEVENT entries just fine; most programs handle VEVENTs in an .ics file well.

VTODO, on the other hand, is broken in many applications, and I've only gotten VTODO to work on Mac once in my life—and I don't remember how. Outlook flat-out ignores VTODO.

If every calendar app supported VEVENT and VTODO well, my life would be much, much simpler. I'm required to use some cloud software that tracks events and tasks, and I'd love to sync it to my phone and have those events and tasks show up as events and tasks. But, because very few calendars import VEVENT correctly (or at all), my cloud software exports both events and tasks as VEVENTs—events for the correct duration, and tasks as a five-minute event on the due date. This is a stupid kludge to get around the usual bad support of VEVENT, and it's one of the things that raises my blood pressure the most.

replies(1): >>43734037 #
4. ctippett ◴[18 Apr 25 07:30 UTC] No.43725859[source]▶
What can I say, other than we have very different experiences. Opening an .ics file from the Files app indeed shows its details, but selecting "Done" does nothing but dismiss its contents and adds nothing to the calendar.

Contrast this with opening the same .ics file from an email attachment or viewing it online, which presents an "Add All" button.

replies(1): >>43741257 #
5. kridsdale1 ◴[19 Apr 25 03:37 UTC] No.43734037[source]▶
We made the deliberate choice on MacOS to remove VTODO from iCal when it split out to the Reminders App and started to go beyond the open protocol.
6. kdtsh ◴[20 Apr 25 03:11 UTC] No.43741257{3}[source]▶
I thought, surely this can’t be right - but can confirm that this is the behaviour I see as well, opening a .ics file in Files lets you inspect the event but doesn’t seem to give you any way of importing it into a calendar (even from the share sheet). Maybe you could email the file to yourself but that seems like a pretty roundabout way of doing it.

Not that I ever get a .ics file from anywhere except my emails, but it would be nice to be able to actually use them if I have them.