Open Questions for Calendar Redesign

[SLaks]

Let me know if you prefer to track/discuss/answer open questions in the Google doc instead

UI

• The calendar-based design uses an entirely new URL format (eg, /2025-03-01:shacharis,maftir) to specify which leining to render עליות for.
  Which existing URL formats should we still support?
  • For example, https://www.hebcal.com/holidays/sukkot-2024#reading links to ref-based URLs, so we should probably still support those (at least until they migrate to our new URL format).
  • Do you know of links to any other URL format? Or should we just support all of the existing URLs?

Navigation

• I will add Next and Previous links to the navigation bar. When scrolling through חומש, should they be entirely calendar-based (jumping to יום טוב or תענית as appropriate), or should they only navigate פרשיות?
  • I'm pretty sure it should be the former; otherwise, if you click Previous from a יום טוב, then next again, it will skip that יום טוב and go to the next פרשה instead (and you won't be able to get back to יום טוב without opening the calendar UI).
• If you're looking at the first day of סוכות, and you click Previous, should it point to יום כיפור שחרית or יום כיפור מנחה?
  • IOW, should it always point to the previous LeiningInstance, or should it point to the first instance when crossing date boundaries?
  • If it should point to שחרית, that means that clicking Previous, then Next won't always land you back to where you started. This seems confusing.
• For both the full calendar / picker UI and/or the Previous/Next links, should I include both days of ראש חודש‎ when they have the same leining?
  • Showing the same leining twice in a row seems silly.
  • OTOH, showing a list/calendar view in the picker that includes every leining could help people with planning (except that I don't plan to include Monday / Thursday)
• How should the picker UI be structured? Options include:
  • Full calendar based view, interleaving regular פרשיות with ראש חודש (for each month) and ימים טובים. This would display the date to help clarify why it's structured like that. This is what I describe in the Google doc.
  • Separate sections for פרשיות and ימים טובים (what about ארבע פרשיות?)
  • Multiple tabs with a mix of the above options
  • Offer users a choice in the Settings screen.

Calendar View

These questions are about the upcoming calendar-based picker UI

• Should the calendar list from ראש השנה through נצבים or בראשית through וזאות הברכה?

Scroll Display

• Should I show Monday/Thursday עלייה labels? If so, how?
  • I could show them alongside the regular ones (how should they be labelled?)
  • Or I could include a header link to toggle between Monday/Thursday and main
• How do you want to render skips in הפטרות?
  • The simplest option is to use עלייה labels (I'm not sure exactly what strings to use for the beginning and end of a skip)
  • It would be nicer to gray out non-leined text (we could do that for יום טוב views as well), but that requires us to change the pages JSON to indicate where in the line each פסוק begins.
• How should I render עליות for חול המועד סוכות?
  • Here is what I show now, without any special logic.
  • I could add סוף רביעי at שני - done in SLaks@318187d
  • I could render colored bars, as described in Improve עלייה / range display on mobile #138
  • I could add a MessageEntry (the same mechanism I use to display skipped עמודים) before the (single) עמוד explaining how the leining works.

Other

• Do you want to only deploy this rewrite after you add JSON files for הפטרות (and other מגילות)?
  If not, I will need to temporarily hide or disable UI that links to unsupported scrolls.