[DFDL-WG] dfdl-wg Digest, Vol 40, Issue 6

Tim Kimber KIMBERT at uk.ibm.com
Mon Dec 7 14:11:52 CST 2009


A minor addition under 2.
- The precise meaning of lengthKind="endOfParent" was discussed. Is it, in 
fact, no more than an alias for 'delimited' ( a usefully descriptive one, 
admittedly )?

regards,

Tim Kimber, Common Transformation Team,
Hursley, UK
Internet:  kimbert at uk.ibm.com
Tel. 01962-816742 
Internal tel. 246742




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dfdl-wg Digest, Vol 40, Issue 6



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Today's Topics:

   1. Minutes for OGF DFDL Working Group Call, December-04-2009
      (Alan Powell)


----- Message from Alan Powell <alan_powell at uk.ibm.com> on Mon, 7 Dec 2009 
18:17:03 +0000 -----
To:
dfdl-wg at ogf.org
Subject:
[DFDL-WG] Minutes for OGF DFDL Working Group Call, December-04-2009


Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group

OGF DFDL Working Group Call, December-04-2009

Attendees 
Suman Kalia (IBM) 
Steve Hanson (IBM) 
Alan Powell (IBM) 
Steve Marting (Progeny) 
Peter Lambros (IBM) 
Stephanie Fetzer (IBM) 

Apologies 
Mike Beckerle (Oco) 



1.        045 Resolving points of uncertainty - Disciminators
Continued discussion of semantics of discriminators and arrays. 

Agreed that discriminator do apply to all points of uncertainty not just 
choices. 

Further discussion on applying to arrays. It was suggested that 
discriminators on a repeating element resolves just that existence of the 
element not the existence of the array. 

We need a fully worked proposal to progress. 
 
2.        Clarification of postfix separators, 
terminators,finalTerminatorCanBeMissing
Tim pointed out  an inconsistency between the terminators and separators 
even though they are very similar. The last terminator can be missing if 
dfdl:finalTerminatorCanBeMissing is set. The last separator is optional 
for dfdl:separatorPolicy='postfix' 

Proposal: 
- Last 'postFix' separator is not optional 
- Terminators are mandatory. 
- A new property allows the final terminator or separator to be missing. 
FinalDelimiterCanBeMissing was suggested. Or define a new entity '%#EoD' 
end of data which could be used as an alternative terminator/separator. 

Further discussion is needed. Action raised 

3.        045  -  parsing rules for determining length  

It was agreed that escaping is enabled by dfdl:escapeSchemeRef 
irrespective of dfdl:lengthKind. 

4.        Arrays
>From Steve H email
Further discussion on array processing: 

4) occursCountKind="expression". Is it a processing error if the number of 
occurrences in the data does not match the value of the expression?   
Agreed: it is a processing error.


5) occursCountKind="useAvailableSpace".  On unparsing, unused space should 
be padded with dfdl:fillByte (added below).  But if the number in the 
infoset is a lot less than the box can hold, how do you know when 
re-parsing how many are in the box?  Also, if we are trying to fit things 
into a box, does it matter if items are left over? I suggested this was an 
error below.  Need Mike's input as he has seen the use cases for this. 
Needs more discussion

6) Rename dfdl:separatorPolicy="required" to "always". 
Agreed

5.        Does the parser/serializer have to start on a global element? 
Discussed whether it should be possible to start the DFDL processor at any 
element within a schema rt=ather than just a global element.  This would 
be helpful for tooling to, for example, create examples data for parts of 
the schema. 
It was also noted that it would be helpful to tooling, especially 
importers, if the  global elements that could be roots of messages where 
known. This had been discussed during scoping discussions. ACTION 

It was also questioned whether the SCD syntax was usable as an external 
root designator.

6.         Go through remaining actions 
Updated below 

7.        Test suite for DFDL 
IBM still investigating if its test case format can be made public. 

8.        Plan to finish DFDL v1 

Draft 037 will be available today or Monday 

Alan has received a document defining the OGF approval process. There are 
two stages 
 1. to bring a document to proposed recommendation 
2. At least 6 months later, to bring it to approved recommendation. 

The schedule will be updated with both stages and when new drafts will be 
available. 

Updated straw man schedule 
Activity 
Schedule 
Who 
Resolve Action items 
             - 23 Nov 2009 
 WG 
Write up work items 
16 Nov - 4 Dec 2009 
AP 
Restructure and complete specification 
23 Nov - 4 Dec 2009 
AP 
WG review 
7 Dec - 18 Dec 2009 
WG 
Incorporate review comments 
4 Jan - 29 Jan 2010 
AP + 
OGF Editor Review / Incorporate changes 
1 Feb - 1 Mar 2010 
OGF 
OGF Public Comment period (60 days) 
1 Mar - 30 Apr 2010 
OGF 
OGF 28 Munich 
15-19 March 2010 





Meeting closed, 15:30 

Next call 09 December 13:00 UK 

Next action: 071 
Actions raised at this meeting 
No
Action 
068
Should the roots of messages be designated.? 
069
Is the SCD syntax usable as a DFDL external. 
070
Clarification of postfix separators, 
terminators,finalTerminatorCanBeMissing
Current Actions: 
No
Action 
037
All: Approach for XML Schema 1.0 UPA checks. 
22/04: Several non-XML models, when expressed in their most obvious DFDL 
Schema form, would fail XML Schema 1.0 Unique Particle Attribution checks 
that police model ambiguity.  And even re-jigging the model sometimes 
fails to fix this. Note this is equally applicable to XMl Schema 1.1 and 
1.0. While the DFDL parser/unparser can happily resolve the ambiguities, 
the issue is one of definition. If an XSD editor that implements UPA 
checks is used to create DFDL Schema, then errors will be flagged. DFDL 
may have to adopt the position that: 
a)DFDL parser/unparser will not implement some/all UPA checks (exact 
checks tbd) 
b) XML Schema editors that implement UPA checks will not be suitable for 
all DFDL models 
c) If DFDL annotations are removed, the resulting pure XSD will not always 
be valid (ie, the equivalent XML is ambiguous and can't be modelled by XML 
Schema 1.0) 
Ongoing in case another solution can be found. 
29/04: Will ask DG and S Gao for opinion before closing 
06/05: Discussed S Gao email and suggestions. Decided need to review all 
XML UPA rules and decide which apply to dfdl. 
20/05: SH or SKK to investigate 
27/05: No Progress 
03/06: The concern is that some dfdl schemas will fail UPA check when 
validation is turned on or when editted using tooling that enforces UPA 
checks. Renaming fields will resolve some/most issues. Need documentation 
that  describes issue and best practice. 
17/06: no change 
24/06: no change 
01/07: no progress 
... 
12/08: No Progress (lower priority) 
19/08: Clarify that this action is to go through the XML UPA checks to 
assess impact on dfdl schemas and advice best practice. Name clashes is 
just one example. SH or SKK 
26/08: No Progress (lower priority) 
09/09: no progress 
... 
04/11: no progress 
11/11: Steve has started to look at this. He has requested a 'consumable' 
definition of the UPA rules from the XSD WG members. Even non-normative 
Appendix H in the XSD 1.0 spec is hard to consume. 
18/11: no update 
25/11: Steve H has not found simpler definition so may just go through 
them. 
04/12: Steve has received a simpler description from S Gao and will go 
though each check. 
045
20/05 AP: Speculative Parsing 
27/05: Psuedo code has been circulated. Review for next call 
03/06: Comments received and will be incorporated 
09/06: Progress but not discussed 
17/06: Discussed briefly 
24/06: No Progress 
01/07: No Progress 
15/07: No progress. MB not happy with the way the algorithm is documented, 
need to find a better way. 
29/07: No Progress 
05/08: No Progress. Will document behaviour as a set of rules. 
12/08: No Progress 
... 
16/09: no progress 
30/09: AP distributed proposal and others commented. Brief discussion AP 
to incorporate update and reissue 
07/10: Updated proposal was discussed.Comments will be incorporated into 
the next version. 
14/10: Alan to update proposal to include array scenario where minOccurs > 
0 
21/10: Updated proposal reviewed 
28/10: Updated proposal reviewed see minutes 
04/11: Discussed semantics of disciminators on arrays. MB to produce 
examples 
11/11: Absorbing action 033 into 045.  Maybe decorated discrminator kinds 
are needed after all. MB and SF to continue with examples.   
18/11: Went through WTX implementation of example. SF to gather more 
documentation about WTX discriminator rules. 
25/11: Further discussion. Will get more WTX documentation. Need to 
confirm that no changes need to Resolving Uncertainty doc. 
04/11: Further discussion about arrays. 
049
20/05 AP Built-in specification description and schemas 
03/06: not discussed 
24/06: No Progress 
24/06: No Progress (hope to get these from test cases) 
15/07: No progress. Once available, the examples in the spec should use 
the dfdl:defineFormat annotations they provide. 
... 
14/10: no progress 
21/10: Discussed the real need for this being in the specification. It 
seemed that the main value is it define a schema location for downloading 
'known' defaults from the web. 
28/10: no progress 
04/11: no progress 
11/11: no update 
18/11: no update 
25/11: Agreed to try to produce for CSV and fixed formats 
04/12: no update 
056
MB Resolve lengthUnits=bits including fillbytes 
12/08: No Progress 
... 
28/10: no progress 
04/11: MB to look at lengthUnits = bits 
11/11: no update 
18/11: no update 
25/11: no update 
04/12: no update. ALan will set up a separate call to progress this 
action. 
064
MB/SH Request WG presentation at OGF 28 
25/11: Session requested 
04/12: no update 
065
Resolve parsing rules for various lengthKinds 
25/11: Agreed dfdl:lengthKind define how to extract the data. Didn'r 
t discuss if this changes escaping. 
04/12: Closed 
066
Investigate format for defining test cases 
25/11:IBM to see if it is possible to publish its test case format. 
04/12: no update 
068
Should the roots of messages be designated.? 
069
Is the SCD syntax usable as a DFDL external. 
070
Clarification of postfix separators, 
terminators,finalTerminatorCanBeMissing
Closed actions 
No
Action 
012
AP/SH: Update decimalCalendarScheme 
10/9: Not allocated yet 
17/9: No update 
24/9: Add calendar binary formats to actions 
22/10: No progress 
16/1: proposal distributed and discussed. Will be redistributed 
21/1: add locale, 
04/02: changed from locale to specific properties 
18/2: Need more investigation of ICU strict/lax behaviour. 
08/04: Not discussed 
22/04: AP to complete asap once the ICU strict/lax behaviour is 
understood. 
29/04: No progress 
06/05: No progress 
13/05: Calendar has been added to latest spec version v034 but still a few 
details to clarify. 
20/05: No Progress 
... 
09/06: No Progress (low priority) 
17/06: SH to check ICU code for lax calendar behaviour 
24/06: no progress 
... 
12/08: no progress 
19/08: Inconsistencies are being found in ICU behaviour so Calendars need 
reviewing again. 
26/08: Specific three character short time zones may not be  maintained 
during round tripping when there is more than one short form for a time 
zone offset. Because dates and datetimes in the infoset only maintain a 
time zone offset so on unparsing it isn't possible to say which short form 
will be selected for a particular offset when there is more than one 
possible. Need to document. 
09/09: no progress 
... 
14/10: no progress 
21/10: Will produce a list of known issues. 
28/10: Discussed ICU farctional seconds behaviour. SF to send latest 
understanding. 
04/11: no progress 
11/11: no update 
18/11: no update 
25/11: no update 
04/12: Steve and Alan have been through the known problems. 
One issue is how many digits fractional second should support. ICU only 
supports milliseconds but allows up to 6 S pattern characters to be 
specified. DFDL will follow this approach but will document the behaviour 
of rounding etc... Closed 

063
Write DFDL primer and test cases. 
11/11: no update 
25/11: no update 
04/12: Should become a work item 
067
25/11:Investigate problem tracking tools. 
04/12: Agreed to use the gridforge Tracker tool. Closed 


Work items: 
No
Item 
target version 
status 
005
Improvements on property descriptions 

not started 
011
How speculative parsing works (combining choice and variable-occurence - 
currently these are separate) (from action 045) 

awaiting completion of actions 045  
012
Reordering the properties discussion: move representation earlier, improve 
flow of topics 

not started 
033
Numeric data - what physical reps are allowed for what logical types (from 
action 020) 
037 
done 
036
Update dfdl schema with change properties 
ongoing 

038
Improve length section including bit handling 

some improvement in 036 
042
Mapping of the DFDL infoset to XDM 
none 
not required for V1 specification 
051
Revised scoping rules (from action 051) 
037 
done 
058
textPadCharacter %#rxx limitation and split to textxxxxPadCharacter 
037 
done 
059
limit terminatorCanBeMissing to last element in schema. Ignore elsewhere. 
037 
done 
060
New empty string semantic for dfdl:binaryBooleanTrueRep 
037 
done 
061
Change maxOccurs violations from processing error to validation error (if 
not 'fixed') 
037 
done 
062
Drop calendarUseZForUTC. describe zU, IU and TU symbols 
037 
done 
063
DefineFormat can contain only one active format. Drop baseFormat 
037 
done 
064
Define how encoding,  byteorder and floating point format externally 
037 
done 
065
Refactor dfdl:textNumberFormat to remove dfdl:numberBase. 
037 
done 
066
document scope of selectors 
037 
done 
067
document floating evaluation order 
037 
done 
068
change  dfdl:length to dfdl:representationLength and 
dfdl:lengthWithoutPadding to RepresentationLengthWithoutParsing 

done 
069
ICU fractional seconds 


070
Write DFDL primer 


071
Write test cases. 


072
it is a processing error if the number of occurrences in the data does not 
match the value of the expression or prefix 


073
Rename dfdl:separatorPolicy="required" to "always". 







Alan Powell

MP 211, IBM UK Labs, Hursley,  Winchester, SO21 2JN, England
Notes Id: Alan Powell/UK/IBM     email: alan_powell at uk.ibm.com 
Tel: +44 (0)1962 815073                  Fax: +44 (0)1962 816898





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