[DFDL-WG] UPDATED DFDL: Minutes from OGF DFDL Working Group Call, March-18-2009 -

Fri Mar 20 07:57:53 CDT 2009

Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group

OGF DFDL Working Group Call, March-18-2009

Attendees 
Alan Powell (IBM) 
Steve Hanson (IBM) 
Dave Glick (drac) 
Suman Kalia (IBM) 

Apologies 
Mike Beckerle(Oco) 

<Updated> to correct dfdl:format syntax to set common properties

Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group

OGF DFDL Working Group Call, March-18-2009

Attendees
Alan Powell (IBM)
Steve Hanson (IBM)
Dave Glick (drac)
Suman Kalia (IBM)

Apologies
Mike Beckerle(Oco)

1.  Specialized Annotations

The whole call was taken up discussing the "dfdl:sequence and other 
specialized annotations" proposal emailed by SH. In summary proposes
- the use of specialized annotations on each schema object. eg 
dfdl:sequence
- a separate set of scoped properties for each specialization.
<xs:complexType name="myType"> 
    <xs:annotation><xs:appinfo source=?http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/?> 
      <dfdl:complexType> 
        <dfdl:sequence lengthKind="implicit" ... /> 
        <dfdl:element lengthKind="delimited" ... /> 
      </dfdl:complexType> 
    </xs:appinfo></xs:annotation> 

There was general agreement with the proposal but a lot of discussion 
about the two issues that SH identified.

a. The meaning of short form annotations on complex type.
<xs:complexType name="myType" dfdl:lengthKind="implicit" ... > 

It is not clear which specialized annotation scope the short form 
properties on complex type should apply to. 
There was a lot of discussion between 1) disallowing short form annotation 
on complex type and 2) applying them to all specialized scopes. 
Disallowing short form is simple but makes complex type different, forces 
long form which is much more verbose, means common properties, eg 
encoding, to be specified the same on multiple specialized annotations. 
This is a particular problem for element and simple type.
However applying short form to all specialization introduces a new level 
of inheritance  and consequent complexity.

b. You are forced to set common properties in multiple places in 
defineFormat. 
<xs:annotation><xs:appinfo source=?http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/?> 
  <dfdl:defineFormat> 
    <dfdl:sequence encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
    <dfdl:element encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
    <dfdl:simpleType encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
    <dfdl:choice encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
    <dfdl:any encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
  </dfdl:defineFormat> 
</xs:appinfo></xs:annotation> 

Possible solution is to use dfdl:format to set common properties

<xs:annotation><xs:appinfo source=?http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/?> 
  <dfdl:defineFormat> 
    <dfdl:format encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
    <dfdl:sequence ... /> 
    <dfdl:element ... /> 
    <dfdl:simpleType ... /> 
    <dfdl:choice ... /> 
    <dfdl:any ... /> 
  </dfdl:defineFormat> 
</xs:appinfo></xs:annotation> 

The consensus was that there should be a way to provide common properties 
so this solution was preferred 
and you could use the same for complex type

    <xs:annotation><xs:appinfo source=?http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/?> 
      <dfdl:complexType> 
        <dfdl:format encoding="UTF-8" ... /> 
           <dfdl:sequence ... /> 
           <dfdl:element ... /> 
           <dfdl:simpleType ... /> 
           <dfdl:choice ... /> 
           <dfdl:any ... /> 
      </dfdl:complexType> 
    </xs:appinfo></xs:annotation> 

It was agreed that this was the preferred solution.

During the discussion SK asked what was the precedence of short and 
long-form properties on the same object. AP subsequently sent SK section 
10.3 which states that long-form have precedence over short-form.

2. AOB
To be discussed 
-  Escape Schemes
-  Validation ranges and exclusion lists 
- Consuming extraneous data after schema has be used. 
-  'Floating' definitions 
-  Actions 

Next call 25 March 14:00 UK

Meeting closed, 15:00 GMT

Actions raised at this meeting 
No
Action 

Current 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. 

020
SH: Resolve packedDecimalSignCodes behaviour depends on NumberCheckPolicy 
22/10: No progress 
10/12: added how to decide to overpunch and sign position 
11/02: proposal largely agreed. SH to make minor changes 
18/02: AP to document unsigned type behaviour 
25/02: no progress 
023
MB: Review Schema 1.1 
29/1: AP and SH to talk to Sandy Gao 
04/02 Call arranged for Friday 
11/02: Call took place. Identified useful changes. Consolidate with 
previous list. 
04/03: decided to stay on Schema 1.0. 
024
String XML type 
025
Escape schemes 
21/1: discussed requirements 
04/02: AP/SH to describe behaviour for known length text fields. Need to 
discuss if comment escapes should be supported. 
11/02 new draft distributed: 
18/02: SH up document concerns 
25/02: SH and AP have refined proposal ready for approval. 
04/03: SH and AP have further refined proposal. 
11/03: discussed. suggested a simplified proposal be evaluated. 
18/03: SH and AP had further discussions on simplified proposal 
026
SH: Envelopes and Payloads 
027
Property precedence tables 
028
Variable markup 
029
 valueCalc (output length calculation) 
031
DG: Review dfdl v033 
11/02:  Initial comments received 
18/02: Will include work items 5 and 12. 
11/03: complete 
032
DG: Investigate compatibility between DFDL infoset and XDM 
033
04/03: Assert/Discriminator semantics. AP to document. TK to check uses of 
discriminator besides choice. 
034
04/03: AP remove redundant properties
Closed actions: 

034 Work items: 
No
Item 

001
String XML type (Ian P) - Apr 30, 2008 

002
Escape schemes (Ian P) - Apr 30, 2008 

003
Variables - ??, 2008 (Mike) 

005
Improvements on property descriptions - ??, 2008 (All - split TBD) 

006
Envelopes and Payloads (Steve) - Apr 30, 2008 

007
(from draft 32) valueCalc (Mike) - ??, 2008   
mostly 
complete 
008
(from draft 32) Property precedence for writing (Steve) - 
under review 
009
(from draft 32) Variable markup (Steve) - Mar 31, 2008   
proposal needs writing up 
010
(from draft 32) Assertions, discriminators and choice, including 
discussion of timing option (Suman) - Mar 31, 2008 * in progress * 

011
(from draft 32) How speculative parsing works (combining choice and 
variable-occurence - currently these are separate) ??, 2008 (IBM) 
 in progress 
012
(from draft 32) Reordering the properties discussion: move representation 
earlier, improve flow of topics ??, 2008 (Alan) * not started * 

025
Augmented infoset and unparsing (Alan)   
added but needs work 
026 
 Remove duration 

complete - specification updated 

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 

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