[DFDL-WG] DFDL: Minutes from OGF WG call, 28 Nov 2007

[Ian W Parkinson]

Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group

Weekly Working Group Conference Call
17:00 GMT, 28 Nov 2007

Attendees
Mike Beckerle (IBM)
Geoff Judd (IBM)
Steve Hanson (IBM)
Ian Parkinson (IBM)
Alan Powell (IBM)


1. Introduction
The agenda, distributed by Mike prior to the call, covered two main items 
for discussion.

A proposal has been circulated to the DFDL-WG mailing list, describing the 
use of annotated simple types for describing length prefixes, which had 
already been discussed within IBM. In the absense of Simon Parker or 
representatives from parties other than IBM, the meeting opted not to 
discuss this proposal at this time.

2. Plan for contents of next draft
The distributed agenda included a draft list of items to be included in 
the next draft of the DFDL specification. Steve queried the 'integer type 
added' item: Mike explained there had been a debate over support for both 
the integer XSD type and the decimal type. We had previously opted to 
support both, as the canonical representation for decimal includes a 
trailing ".0" on integers, which may be confusing for users.

Mike would like to prepare, along similar lines, a plan covering several 
draft versions of the specification. Some work items, such as the SWIFT 
example, would be omitted from the plan as they do not directly concern 
the text of the specification. Mike's plan will be distributed via the 
DFDL-WG mailing list.

Alan asked if we should set a target date for completion of the 
specification. Mike observed that we had previously set target dates that 
had not been achieved; however Steve felt that as we are in a position to 
plan the next few drafts of the specification, a target date is likely to 
be more reasonable.

3. Other business
Steve has been revisiting the decimal supplement, and has found some 
errors. Mike observed that it would be desirable for DFDL's support of 
packed decimal numbers and floating point numbers to be analogous. One 
complexity lies in the number of types of packed decimal that DFDL needs 
to support (including 'pure', unsigned packed, IBM packed, and zoned 
decimal), along with variants, which Mike felt might best be addressed 
through a small pattern language. Steve would investigate this further.


Meeting closed, 17:30 GMT


Ian Parkinson
WebSphere ESB Development
Mail Point 211, Hursley Park, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, UK





Unless stated otherwise above:
IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 
741598. 
Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.ogf.org/pipermail/dfdl-wg/attachments/20071129/75e2c98d/attachment.html