[DFDL-WG] Reducing the number of DFDL properties.

Mon Mar 2 10:08:42 CST 2009

Alan/Mike,

I agree with this - one of my complaints with v033 was that these
specialized annotation elements just added confusion and redundancy.

Dave

---
David Glick  |  dglick at dracorp.com  |  703.299.0700 x212
Data Research and Analysis Corp.  |  www.dracorp.com

________________________________

From: dfdl-wg-bounces at ogf.org [mailto:dfdl-wg-bounces at ogf.org] On Behalf
Of Alan Powell
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 11:03 AM
To: mbeckerle.dfdl at gmail.com
Cc: dfdl-wg at ogf.org
Subject: Re: [DFDL-WG] Reducing the number of DFDL properties.

Mike 

Thanks 

Can I also suggest dropping the dfdl:sequence, dfdl:choice, dfdl:element
and dfdl:any specialized annotations and just have dfdl:format. 

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

From: 

"Mike Beckerle" <mbeckerle.dfdl at gmail.com> 

To: 

Alan Powell/UK/IBM at IBMGB 

Cc: 

<dfdl-wg at ogf.org> 

Date: 

28/02/2009 19:38 

Subject: 

RE: Reducing the number of DFDL properties.

________________________________

If a property is redundant, I'm in favor of dropping it. 

If a property adds generality that we don't have a use case for, I'm in
favor of dropping it. 

I am happy to drop type substitution from v1.0. It's a convenience that
can be achieved a different way. 

E.g., if you really want "float" to mean "float in my particular binary
representation", then just put a type definition with DFDL annotations
in a different namespace, and when you write your DFDL schema, arrange
for the default namespace to pick it up from your namespace, and not
xs:float. 

<xs:element name="myElement" type="float"/> <!-- float here is
myNamespace:float which can have DFDL annotations on it --> 
<xs:element name="anotherElem" type="xs:float"/> <!-- explicitly
xs:float without further adornment --> 

If you want the XSD unadorned "float" type, be explicit and use
"xs:float". Voila - no loss of flexibility, equal textual convenience. 

I think that would satisfy the community that really wanted very compact
"slideware acceptable" schemas. This is the same group that wants
short-form annotations as well. 

________________________________

From: Alan Powell [mailto:alan_powell at uk.ibm.com
<mailto:alan_powell at uk.ibm.com> ] 
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:22 PM
To: mbeckerle.dfdl at gmail.com
Cc: dfdl-wg at ogf.org
Subject: Reducing the number of DFDL properties.

Mike 

A number of people at IBM have become concerned at the number of
properties in DFDL and have identified a number of 'usability'
properties that could be dropped. They feel that we should be
simplifying the properties wherever possible and not introducing
multiple ways of doing the same function without very good reason. 

The following are offered for consideration. 
1.        lengthKind='nullterminated'
This is just shorthand for lengthKind=delimited and terminator='%Null'.
It was felt this this is not even the most common terminator so why have
a special case? 
2.        trimKind
It is felt that there aren't any cases when you would want to pad but
not trim and vice versa so make padKind control both. 
3.        typeSubstitution.
Is this needed in DFDL v1? 

Can you consider these before the call next week 

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

________________________________

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 

________________________________

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 

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