[dfdl-wg] New Primer: I need some help

[Robert E. McGrath]

Greetings,

As many of you know, I have been tasked to compile a revised "primer"
for DFDL. Based on the draft spec. and other information, I have made 
some good progress, but there are a number of topics that I don't
have enough information on.

This note summarizes areas where I need substantial contributions
from you all.

This may not be things to tackle via the mail list, I don't know.
Perhaps we can discuss these issues at the F2F.


1. Use cases

Actually, there should be a "Use Cases" tracker and a separate
UC document, IMO.

By "Use Case" I mean statements of how DFDL is intended to be used.
This is different from the current example suites which illustrate
the language but do not discuss why you need DFDL or what it helps
you do.

More on this one later. I'm developing a note with some interesting
use cases I'd like to discuss.

2. Overview of the language

I would like the primer to say "the DFDL is the following XSD elements,
with the following restrictions.  DFDL defines the following tags and
attributes".  Just a summary, circa 2 pages.

I'm sure this informtion is implicit in the current spec and demo software,
but I need help to write a clear summary.

3. Processing model

I would like the primer to explain how DFDL is used, i.e.,

  Parse DFDL, which tells how to parse data, ...

Again, this is probably implicit in current work, but I need a short
and clear summary.

4. Explanation of configurations, layers etc.

Related to above.  Explain the non-trivial processing of DFDL.

Some of this awaits the outcome of trackers.