VOTable session @ Interop.Moscow

[Mark Taylor]

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, Francois Ochsenbein wrote:

> 
> Hi VOTablers,
> 
> The attendence at this IVOA session is rather sparse -- and we were
> just 8 persons at the VOTable session. Quite easy to take decisions,
> but a larger consensus is wished...
> 
> The viewgraphs are available from
> http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/InterOpSep2006VOTable

Francois et al.,

Sorry I couldn't make it to Moscow.  I have one or two comments on 
issues mentioned in the presentation on the wiki:

 1. ID attribute on TR element
 2. Recursivity in RESOURCE elements

      As I understand it, both of these are suggestions to change the
      VOTable definition in order to accommodate the behaviour of 
      some specific software items (automatic code generation tools)
      which are buggy or incomplete.  I do not support this course of
      action.  Changing the standard in response to vagaries of 
      specific software items is unlikely to lead to a clear standard,
      and is likely to be overtaken by events as the implementation
      status of existing software changes or as new software arises.

 3. Empty TD

      Allowing <TD>NaN</TD> instead of <TD/> for integers doesn't 
      fix anything; there's still the problem of how such an
      element is represented if you want to convert to the BINARY
      or FITS representation.

      Providing a magic number to stand for integer null values 
      can already be done by using the "null" attribute on the 
      VALUES element.  Is your suggestion of using the fixed 
      0x8000* values intended to replace this?

 4. Schema changes

      "&32;" should read " ".

Mark

-- 
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/