[DFDL-WG] Conflicting Info: binaryDecimalVirtualPoint

[Steve Hanson]

Mike responses in-line below

Also note property mis-spelling as dfdl:binaryVirtualDecimalPoint in 
section 13.7.1.1.

Regards
 
Steve Hanson
IBM Hybrid Integration, Hursley, UK
Architect, IBM DFDL
Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group
smh at uk.ibm.com
tel:+44-1962-815848
mob:+44-7717-378890
Note: I work Tuesday to Friday 



From:   Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl at gmail.com>
To:     DFDL-WG <dfdl-wg at ogf.org>
Date:   03/10/2018 17:04
Subject:        [DFDL-WG] Conflicting Info: binaryDecimalVirtualPoint
Sent by:        "dfdl-wg" <dfdl-wg-bounces at ogf.org>



The spec has conflicting info about the property binaryDecimalVirtualPoint

Section 22.1 shows this property only being examined once binaryNumberRep 
is 'packed', 'bcd', or 'ibm4690Packed'. 
SMH: It's also shown for 'binary' and IBM DFDL implements this.
(Note: doesn't even allow for zoned as this is 'binaryDecimal....", and 
zoned is considered text). 
SMH: Correct. Zoned is text as you say, so VDP is provided by the 'V' 
character.

Section 13.7.1.1 explicitly states this property can be used with 
non-base-10 representations to scale the value.

While the functionality in 13.7.1.1 could be useful to people, I believe 
the intent of this property was to support virtual decimal points, which 
is, in my experience, a COBOL-oriented feature used with base-10 
representations (zoned, text, or packed/bcd). In DFDL v1.0, zoned is 
considered textual, so this property doesn't apply to zoned numbers. That 
leaves only the packed/bcd representations.

I suggest these changes:
1)  language in 13.7.1.1 should be revised to avoid requiring this 
property to apply to binaryNumberRep='binary' (aka twos-complement or 
unsigned binary) integers. 
SMH: No, see response above
2) The definition of the property should explicitly state it applied only 
to base 10 binary (aka packed/bcd) representations. 
SMH: No, as a corollary.


Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | Tresys Technology | 
www.tresys.com
Please note: Contributions to the DFDL Workgroup's email discussions are 
subject to the OGF Intellectual Property Policy
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