<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Hi all,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Steve and Mike have asked me to record
minutes at the regular DFDL-WG conference calls. Here are the minutes from
yesterday's meeting - I'd obviously welcome any suggestions you may have
on the format or style of these minutes.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Thanks,</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Ian</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description
Language Working Group</b></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>Weekly Working Group Conference Call</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>17:00 GMT, 7 Nov 2007</b></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>Attendees</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Mike Beckerle (IBM)</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Geoff Judd (IBM)</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Steve Hanson (IBM)</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Suman Kalia (IBM)</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Simon Parker (PolarLake)</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Ian Parkinson (IBM)</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>1. Introduction</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The previous meeting left two areas
for consideration: the Information Set (InfoSet) proposal, and the work
regarding defaulting and nulls. This meeting would cover a review of a
revised InfoSet proposal. The defaults/nulls issue has not been progressed.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>2. Review of Revised Information
Set Proposal</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Steve and Simon have collaborated on
a revision, v6, of the InfoSet proposal. This has been circulated via the
DFDL-WG mailing list.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The meeting reviewed the v6 proposal,
highlighting the following points:</font>
<ol>
<li value=1><font size=2 face="sans-serif">There remain two types of information
item: Element Information Items and Document Information Items. Element
Information Items. There are now two categories of Element Information
Item: simple, and complex.</font>
<li value=2><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The description of Document
Information Items incorrectly lists a "root" member. This should
be replaced by a "children" member. Geoff pointed out that the
associated UML diagram suggests that a Document Information Item may contain
multiple children; this will be restricted in the text.</font>
<li value=3><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The "dfdl version"
member is now used to describe the version of DFDL to which the InfoSet
conforms; it does not describe the version of the parser generating the
InfoSet. In particular, for an InfoSet to inlcude a dfdl version identifier,
there is now no requirement for that InfoSet to have been generated by
a DFDL parser.</font>
<li value=4><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Mike queried the meaning of
"absolute Schema Component Descriptor"; it should identify a
schema as a whole. This is a term defined by the SCD specification, and
an appropriate citation should be added to the proposal.</font>
<li value=5><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The meeting discussed, at length,
the "data value" member of Element Information Item, which the
proposal lists as being of type String. Mike pointed out that this is insufficient
to distinguish between some binary floating-point values, and suggested
that it should be of a type defined by the "data type" member.
Suman suggested this would also make for a more natural API. Simon remarked
on the precedent set by XML Schema where all values are represented as
strings. Mike closed the discussion advocating dropping the word "String"
from the definition of the "data value" member.</font>
<li value=6><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Suman queried the purpose of
the document information item. This is an in-memory artifact only, which
acts as a container of the InfoSet's data, and has no representation in
a serialization of the InfoSet. This should be clarified in the proposal.</font>
<li value=7><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The proposal now contains a
UML diagram illustrating the object model. The relationship between Parent
and Element requires some clarifying: it should be modelled as a composite
containment relationship.</font>
<li value=8><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Simon highlighted that the "schema"
member of Element Information Item may be either a relative or an absolute
SCD; while the "schema" member of Document Information Item must
be an absolute SCD.</font>
<li value=9><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The current version makes no
mention of arrays, preferring to treat arrays as repeated children with
the same name. The meeting consdered how to denote arrays in the InfoSet,
but opted instead to add a note regarding arrays to the specification.</font></ol>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Mike will circulate his notes regarding
the agreed changes to the spec. Simon will circulate a new version, v7,
incorporating further comments.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>3. Other Business</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">There was no other business.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><b>Meeting closed</b></font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
Ian Parkinson<br>
WebSphere ESB Development<br>
Mail Point 211, Hursley Park, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, UK</font><font size=3 face="sans-serif"><br>
</font>
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IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number
741598. <br>
Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6
3AU</i></font>
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<p><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><i>Unless stated otherwise above:<br>
IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number
741598. <br>
Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6
3AU</i></font>
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