VOTable alternative?

[Tony Linde]

> might not be feasible.  If we had a schema with a few x 10**3 
> kinds of elements that could appear inside a TABLEDATA (i.e. 
> one for every possible UCD) would it work or would it crawl? 

Why do you need to describe every possible column name / UCD in the schema?
The schema for one table need only contain the column names for that table.
But at least it'd be searchable using normal XPath/XQuery techniques.

Cheers,
Tony. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Guy Rixon [mailto:gtr at ast.cam.ac.uk] 
> Sent: 19 January 2004 13:08
> To: Tony Linde
> Cc: votable at ivoa.net
> Subject: Re: VOTable alternative?
> 
> 
> I would support redefining VOTable for simplicity of parsing. 
>  At the last interop meeting I proposed a lightweight 
> "profile" of VOTable.  I'd like to discontinue the use of 
> embedded binary and to reduce the variety of thngs that get 
> put into table cells.
> 
> Changing the TD elements to something else is interesting but 
> might not be feasible.  If we had a schema with a few x 10**3 
> kinds of elements that could appear inside a TABLEDATA (i.e. 
> one for every possible UCD) would it work or would it crawl? 
> Could a TD element have a link to its ruling FIELD element? 
> (I.e. can we make the contents of FIELD accessible to XPath via TD?)
> 
> Ultimately, VOTable works because it can describe external, 
> binary formats that are never addressable by XPath.  If we 
> replace VOTable, then we need to retain this abaility.
> 
> On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, Tony Linde wrote:
> 
> > Is anyone interested in an activity to come up with an 
> *alternative* 
> > to VOTable?
> >
> > I'm concerned that VOTable is contrary to the normal usage 
> of xml, eg: 
> > the metadata for a table is in a proprietary format rather 
> than in XML 
> > Schema; it is embedded within the document; all table data is 
> > contained within TD elements making it impossible to use normal xml 
> > querying mechanisms. I'm sure a real xml expert could come up with 
> > more problems. It is likely that long-term use of VOTable will shut 
> > the astro community off from developments in xml 
> technology: searching 
> > and manipulation of data; querying of indexed and compressed xml 
> > documents; xml database storage.
> >
> > I'm not saying that VOTable discussion and development should stop 
> > since it may turn out that astro data is so inimical to normal xml 
> > usage that we have to stick with VOTable but I think it would be a 
> > good idea to expend some effort in seeing if a more conformant 
> > standard is possible before VOTable becomes used outside the VO 
> > projects community.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Tony.
> >
> > __
> > Tony Linde
> > Phone:  +44 (0)116 223 1292    Mobile: +44 (0)7753 603356
> > Fax:    +44 (0)116 252 3311    Email:  ael at star.le.ac.uk
> > Post:   Department of Physics & Astronomy,
> >         University of Leicester
> >         Leicester, UK   LE1 7RH
> >
> > Project Manager,            Director,
> > AstroGrid                   Leicester e-Science Centre
> > http://www.astrogrid.org    http://www.e-science.le.ac.uk/
> >
> >
> 
> Guy Rixon 				        gtr at ast.cam.ac.uk
> Institute of Astronomy   	                Tel: +44-1223-337542
> Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK, CB3 0HA		Fax: 
> +44-1223-337523
>