I use Mac iCal to store my calendar and it has this handy export feature that lets me dump any calendar to a WebDAV enabled HTTP server. Great! Now I can use iCal to create events and then write a handy little Perl script to rip those suckers apart and generate content for my web page. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I search around on Google and CPAN for modules that already do all the work and what do I find? Almost nothing.

The best thing I am able to find is Reefknot, which hasn't had a CVS commit in over a year. The last release on CPAN dates back to 2001, except for a module which is capable of parsing ICal dates---useful, but not applicable to breaking up vCalendar files.

Looking around for solutions in other languages or even for applications reveals a dismal collection of hacks, almost working code, and abandoned projects. Is vCalendar complicated? Not really. Can anyone explain to me why vCalendar seems to be the third rail of programming? Every project that touched it seems to have died 2 or more years ago. Heck, I can't even find the word vCalendar more than once in SuperSearch. Anyone have insight?