[DFDL-WG] Minutes for OGF DFDL WG call 10 November 2010 15:00UK (10:00 ET)

Thu Nov 11 06:33:22 CST 2010

Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group

OGF DFDL Working Group Call, 10 November 2010

Attendees
Stephanie Fetzer (IBM)
Steve Hanson (IBM) 
Tim Kimber(IBM) 
Bob McGrath (National Center for Supercomputing Applications)

Apologies
Alan Powell (IBM)
Suman Kalia (IBM)
Mike Beckerle (Oco)

1.  Discuss with  Gary Sikora the use of DFDL by OMG MARS IEF ITS 
Gary did not attend - postponed until a later date.

2. Current Actions     
Updated below.

3. AOB 
a) Press release to publicise DFDL
Steve is pulling together a press release at IBM. Want to include as many 
contributors and interested parties as possible.NCSA are keen to be 
included. Also likely that US National Archive will want to be included. 
Mike has indicated OCO are too.  Action raised

b) Limitations of DFDL 1.0
Steve was asked if DFDL could handle the zip format. The answer is that 
DFDL can not model zip in its full generality, as it includes location by 
offset where the offsets are at the end of the file. This random access 
style of format is something that DFDL 2.0 should look at addressing, via 
addition of location by offset and layering.

Meeting closed, 16:00

Next call  Wednesday  20 October  2010  15:00 UK  (10:00 ET)

Next action: 130
Actions raised at this meeting

No
Action 
129
a) Press release to publicise DFDL
Steve is pulling together a press release at IBM. Want to include as many 
contributors and interested parties as possible.NCSA are keen to be 
included. Also likely that US National Archive will want to be included. 
Mike has indicated OCO are too. 

Current Actions:
No
Action 
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
...
17/02: IBM is willing in principle to publish the test case format and 
some of the test cases. May need some time to build a 'compliance suite'
24/03: No progress
03/03: Discussions have been taking place on the subset of tests that will 
be provided.
10/03: work is progressing
17/03: work is progressing
31/03: work is progressing
14/04: And XML test case format has been defined and is being tested.
21/04. Schema for TDML defined. Need to define how this and the test cases 
will be made public
05/05: Work still progressing
12/05: Work still progressing
02/06: Work still progressing on technical and legal considerations
...
25/08: Will chase to allow Daffodil access to test cases.   The WG should 
define how implementation confirm that they 'conform to DFDL v1'
01/09: IBM still progressing the legal aspect. Intends to publish 100 or 
so tests as soon as it can, ahead of a full compliance suite.
08/09: IBM still progressing
15/09: IBM still progressing, expect tests to be available within a few 
weeks
22/09: IBM still progressing, expect tests to be available within a few 
weeks
29/09:Test cases are being prepared.
06/10: Some test cases should be available next week. Steve would like to 
be able to show the test case information at OGF 30. 
13/10: Still progressing
10/11: Legal issues cleared, IBM in process of collecting 100 example test 
cases, ideally ones that fit the 'extended conformance' of NCSA Daffodil 
111
Daffodil DFDL parser
11/08: Bob and Alejandro described the new implementation that they have 
developed. It is a new code base and is not based on the Deffudle 
prototype. It is written in scala and implements approximately 80% of the 
features in the public comments draft of DFDL V1. Alejandro will send a 
list of the features not implemented.
We discussed the scenarios that motivated the development which was to 
extract data from various sources and transform into canonical formats.
Bob offered to make Daffodil available for the WG to assess the 
functionality. IBM WG members will get approval the company  to allow them 
to receive Daffodil.
Bob raised the question that if Daffodil becomes the public implementation 
of DFDL then we will need to work out how that would be funded and 
managed.
It would be helpful if IBM test cases were available to Daffodil. IBM will 
investigate
25/08: Alejandro had sent a list of the functions that he has implemented 
and Steve ahd responding indicating the extra functions he thought were 
essential.
Since then Alejandro has implemented some of the missing functions, such 
as escape schemes, pre-defined variables, binary decimal numbers, etc, and 
will update his list.
Bob is planning to make the parser available on the internet to allow 
testing.
His organisation is being reorganised and he doesn't know what the 
priority of  Daffodill will be so it is essential that we move quickly. It 
would help if IBM could indicate its support for Daffodil in some 
semi-formal way.
01/09: Alejandro updating Daffodil to include escape schemes, unordered 
sequences and ignoreCase.
Daffodil being placed under formal source control in anticipation of 
external release.
Bob has a start October deadline to create a report on what has been done 
for his sponsors.
It would be great if we could get Daffodil on the web and have run some 
IBM tests so it could be highlighted at OGF 30 at end October.
08/09: Alejandro is marking up Spec draft 42 to indicate which features 
Daffodil implement. Bob expects Daffodil to be available on the web soon.
15/09: Alejandro had indicated in the specification which functions were 
implemented in Daffodill. Steve had reviewed and identified which function 
need to be implemented and which could be considered optional (see action 
099). Alejandro is implementing the missing core functions. There was some 
discussion about the limitations on unordered groups. (stop value and 
expression not supported). It was agreed that it should be a schema 
definition error if dfdl:occursCountKind is 'stopValue' on any element 
within an unordered sequence and a floating element.
22/09: not discussed
29/09: not discussed
06/10: Alejandro has left NCSA. Bob is making the case for continuing and 
having a replacement. Bob to agree with Steve what can be said at OGF30. 
13/10: Bob still progressing project funding and making Daffodil 
publically available.
10/11: NCSA internal & sponsor (US National Archive in Washington DC - 
Electronic Records Administration) reviews passed. NCSA have new resource 
allocated - Joe Futrelle.  Bob has started open source paperwork. ETA end 
December. 
112
DFDL certification process
25/08: Discussed how to certify DFDL implementations. Alan to investigate 
if OGF have a defined process.
01/09: In progress, spec needs to state what conformance means, as part of 
this work
08/09: Discussed what needs to be said in the spec and agreed that details 
of a conformance test suite should be in another document.
Alan to draft conformance section. 
15/09: Alan had look at the conformance sections in XML and Schema 
specifications both of which indicate sections which must be implemented. 
None just say 'execute the test suite'.  They talk in terms of conformance 
of document, schema and processors.. 
22/09: no progress
22/09: Alan has added  short Conformance and Optional Features sections to 
spec which was briefly discussed. Discussed naming for processors that 
don't implement optional features and those that implement all features.
06/10: Need to decide what/how test cases and certification process should 
occur 
13/10: no progress 
10/11: no progress 
123
DFDL tutorial
13/10: Draft of first 3 chapters has been written and will be distributed 
to WG
10/11: Posted to grid forge here (
http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16106?nav=1), work continuing at IBM 
to define a standard example-based chapter framework and to author 
additional chapters. Contributors welcome!
124
DFDL web content on OGF standards pages 
13/10: no progress 
10/11: no progress
129
Press release to publicise DFDL
Steve is pulling together a press release at IBM. Want to include as many 
contributors and interested parties as possible.NCSA are keen to be 
included. Also likely that US National Archive will want to be included. 
Mike has indicated OCO are too. 

Closed actions
No
Action 
125
-p111 13.16 nilValue literalCharacter. If not fixed length how many should 
be output? Steve to check what MRM does.
30/10: Fixed in final spec version. Closed
126
-p85 13.2.1 generateEscape really only applies to escape blocks so could 
be renamed.
30/10: Renamed in final spec version Closed
127
3. dfdl:roundingIncrement 
Problems with rounding and ICU 
13/10: not discussed
30/10: New properties introduced. Fixed in final spec version. Closed
128
5. AOB - Is support for locales sufficient?
13/10: not discussed 
30/10: Seems OK. Closed
085
ALL: publicise Public comments phase to ensure a good review..
14/04: see minutes
21/04: Press release, OMG and other standards bodies.
05/05: Alan and Steve H have contacted other standards bodies. Will ask 
them to add comments on spec
15/05: still no public comments
02/06: No public comments
16/06: Public comments period has ended with no external comments. Alan 
had posted changes made in draft 041. Steve suggested send a note to the 
WG highlighting these changes.  Steve also suggested requesting an 
extension as other IBM groups may review. We discussed whether this was 
necessary as changes will need to be made during the implementation phase 
anyway. Alan to ask OGF what the process is for changes post public 
comment.
23/06: Still no comments. Alan will contact OGF to understand the rest of 
the process.
30/06: Alan has emailed Joel asking what the process is now public comment 
period is over and can we update the published version with WG updates. No 
response yet.
07/07: No response. Alan will chase up
14/07: No response from Joel. Sent email to Greg Newby by no response.
21/07: Still no response.
04/08: Joel has responded that it is up to the WG to decide if the changes 
are significant enough to need additional review. Alan to contact David 
Martin and Erwin Laure for guidance if we split the specification.
11/08: Received a  response from Joel that the WG can decide if a re- 
public review is necessary before becoming a 'proposed recommendation'. 
Alan responded that the WG agreed that a re-review was not necessary. The 
next stage is for  OGF review committee to approve publication.
11/08: Specification is now 'awaiting author changes' before being 
submitted to the OGF technical committee for approval as a 'proposed 
specification'.
Alan would like to have the updated specification complete by Sept 10th. 
The WG needs to complete all actions by then or decide that they do not 
need to be included in this phase of the process.
01/09: Alan and Steve have discussed and propose Sept 30th for completion 
of draft 43 and closure of all actions.
08/09: Target for completion September 30.
15/09: as above
22/09: as above
29/09: Draft 43 will be published this week for WG review prior to 
submitting to OGF
06/10: Draft 43 was distributed on 30 September and includes all 
outstanding work items. This will be the last draft before submission to 
OGF for the final committee review. All comments should be sent to Alan by 
Tuesday 12th Oct and final version will be submitted on Friday 15th.
13/10: Thorough review by Steve and comments from Suman and Stephanie. 
Most updates done. Final review draft will be issued 14th Oct and final 
version to OGF soon after.
10/11: Closed. Spec submitted on 22nd Oct as 'Proposed Recommendation', 
and was highlighted in the OGF Plenary session at OGF 30 in Brussels. 
Available on grid forge here (
http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16074?nav=1)

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

not started
012
Reordering the properties discussion: move representation earlier, improve 
flow of topics 

not started 
036
Update dfdl schema with change properties 
ongoing

042
Mapping of the DFDL infoset to XDM 
none
not required for V1 specification
070
Write DFDL primer 

071
Write test cases.

Regards

Alan Powell

Development - MQSeries, Message Broker, ESB
IBM Software Group, Application and Integration Middleware Software
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM
MP211, Hursley Park
Hursley, SO21 2JN
United Kingdom
Phone: +44-1962-815073
e-mail: alan_powell at uk.ibm.com

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/20101111/868830ca/attachment-0001.html 