VOTable alternative?

[Clive Page]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Alasdair Allan wrote:

> That isn't awkwardness, its cleverness.
>
> The file can be pointed to using a URI, the file could be located
> anywhere. This means the only thing that has to be passed by intermediate
> services is a small bundle of XML, which has all the descriptive
> meta-data.

I guess that bit is clever, if it always works properly.  My feelings may
be coloured by recalling IRAF some years ago.  One of its bulk data
formats had data in one file, metadata in a separate file.  That gave
endless trouble to users, who kept finding the two didn't always travel
together; it is debatable whether the anguish was greater when one
discovered one had the data file but had no idea what they were, or a
complete description file but no data for it to describe.  FITS, where
the two were inseparably linked in one file, seemed a huge advance.

Regards

-- 
Clive Page
Dept of Physics & Astronomy,
University of Leicester,    Tel +44 116 252 3551
Leicester, LE1 7RH,  U.K.   Fax +44 116 252 3311