<INFO> tag in VOTable1.2

[Roy Williams]

Francois

If it is still possible, I would like to add my voice asking for the 
INFO tag to be left alone. The benefits from the suggested change seem 
quite small, compared to the costs.

In several IVOA documents the following thing is shown, and many 
applications code against this:
    <INFO name="QUERY_STATUS" value="OK">Successful query</INFO>

The problem with changing this tag is that error messages may not 
propagate back to the customer, meaning they cannot get their query 
correct, more astronomers disillusioned with the VO.

For example. the backend service may return an INFO tag saying that the 
query failed because of a case-sensitivity problem: "Unknown database 
table PHOTOPRIMARY". If the customer sees this, she may try 
"Photoprimary" instead, and be successful and then tell her friends the 
VO is fabulous. However, if the INFO changes, and the VOTable 
versions/schemas/documentation are mismatched in some way, the same 
customer gets no diagnostic, accepts failure, tells all her friends the 
VO is bad.

I do not think this big cost is balanced by the benefits of the proposed 
change.
Roy

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California Institute of Technology
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