March 2008 - dfdl-wg - lists.ogf.org

DFDL: Calculated Values section rewrite
by Mike Beckerle 15 May '08

15 May '08

My deliverable for the next draft (32) was to revise the calculated values section. I have rewritten it and the draft is attached. Of note: I have removed the troublesome "outputLengthCalc" property, as I no longer see a critical need for it. One of the examples computes the number of occurrences for a byte array, and I think that mechanism along with alignment is sufficient to handle the troublesome cases I was considering where size of padding had to be dynamically computed. The section now consists of a short table of definition, followed by illustrative examples, however, I think this is fine. The semantics of inputValueCalc and outputValueCalc aren't really that complex. They can be described in a paragraph. It is the motivation for them that is complicated, so I think examples in the spec, while sometimes considered problematic, are OK in this case.

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No WG meeting, 26th March
by Ian W Parkinson 26 Mar '08

26 Mar '08

Hi all, We've cancelled the DFDL WG call today due to lack of participants. I think we've been caught out by daylight savings time! Just to confirm, next week's call is scheduled for: Wednesday 2nd April, 4pm GMT -- that's 12pm Eastern Daylight Time and 5pm British Summer Time. These should be the usual local times. The USA is already on daylight savings; the UK starts daylight savings time this coming weekend. Cheers, Ian Ian Parkinson WebSphere ESB Development Mail Point 211, Hursley Park, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, UK 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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DFDL: 2008-03-26 Call
by Mike Beckerle 26 Mar '08

26 Mar '08

I apologize for not sending out an agenda in advance. I did manage to call in to this; however, the "call leader never activated the call" L. As per prior email, I did use this time to do my primary v32 deliverable. .mikeb

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DFDL: Minutes from OGF WG call, 19 Mar 2008
by Ian W Parkinson 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group Weekly Working Group Conference Call 17:00 GMT, 19 Mar 2008 Attendees Steve Hanson (IBM) Ian Parkinson (IBM) Alan Powell (IBM) Apologies Mike Beckerle (Oco) 1. Outstanding specification work items The group is presently working towards draft 32 of the DFDL specification, with a revised target date of 31st March. The meeting reviewed status of the items planned for draft 32: valueCalc Mike is progressing this. Date required. null/default/optionals Alan is working on this and hopes to complete by the end of next week, for inclusion in draft 32. UML description of Schema Components Simon's revised diagrams were reviewed during last week's DFDL working group call. The overall "Schema" diagram will be included in draft 32, and the "Informal Overview" diagram will be included in a DFDL Primer document. Property Precedence - Completed, for inclusion in draft 32. Variable Markup - The IBM team will attempt to refine Steve's earlier proposal to allow variable markup, planned for inclusion in draft 32, Regular Expressions for Lengths - Alan to draft, planned for inclusion in draft 32. Update supplements - We currently have three supplements to update, on date/time, decimals, and text processing. Mike had previously suggested the use of a pattern language to describe non-text decimals (like we have for text decimals with dfdl:textNumberFormat). Steve will prepare a draft language for non-text decimals, to see if it is an improvement over equivalent set of properties. Assertions, Descriminators and Choice - After previous discussions, this is now in a position to be prepared for inclusion in draft 32. Having pushed the previous work on this, Suman will be asked to write this up. Date required. Speculative Parsing - The IBM team is reviewing the speculative parsing behaviour of existing IBM parsing technology, to see whether the same algorithms are appropriate for DFDL. Alan will take a first attempt at writing up the proposed DFDL behaviour for inclusion in the specification, possibly using pseudo-code. Property Reordering - No progress. The subsequent draft, 33, will be targetted for April 30th. Actions Mike, Suman - please confirm whether you are happy with the work items, and provide/correct dates listed below. Meeting closed, 17:45 GMT Attachment - Revised specification delivery plan Draft 32: valueCalc (Mike) - ??, 2008 *in progress* Remaining aspects of null/default/optionals (Alan) - Mar 31, 2008 2-level description of schema components, including UML (Simon) - * done* Property precedence for writing (Steve) - *done* Variable markup (Steve) - Mar 31, 2008 Regular expressions for lengths - Mar 31, 2008 (Alan) Bring supplements up-to-date (Steve) - Mar 31, 2008 Assertions, discriminators and choice, including discussion of timing option (Suman) - Mar 31, 2008 * in progress * How speculative parsing works (combining choice and variable-occurence - currently these are separate) ??, 2008 (IBM) Reordering the properties discussion: move representation earlier, improve flow of topics ??, 2008 (Alan) Draft 33: Escape schemes (Ian P) - Apr 30, 2008 String XML type (Ian P) - Apr 30, 2008 Variables - ??, 2008 (Mike) Selectors (Suman) - Apr 30, 2008 Improvements on property descriptions - ??, 2008 (All - split TBD) Envelopes and Payloads (Steve) - Apr 30, 2008 Extraneous to spec: Develop Schema for DFDL xsd (Suman) - Apr 30, 2008 Develop Schema for Schema DFDL Subset xsd (Suman) - Apr 30, 2008 (might not be needed) Ian Parkinson WebSphere ESB Development Mail Point 211, Hursley Park, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, UK 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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DFDL: Minutes from OGF WG call, 12 Mar 2008 *** UPDATED ***
by Ian W Parkinson 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

All, Simon provided some feedback on last week's minutes, which is reflected in the updated minutes below. Thanks to Simon (and apologies for taking a full week to redistribute these). Please note these are the minutes from last week, I will distribute the minutes from yesteday's meeting shortly. Cheers, Ian Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group Weekly Working Group Conference Call 17:00 GMT, 12 Mar 2008 Attendees Simon Parker (PolarLake) Ian Parkinson (IBM) Alan Powell (IBM) Apologies Mike Beckerle (Oco) Steve Hanson (IBM) Suman Kalia (IBM) 1. UML Descriptions of Schema Components Followng recent reviews, Simon has distributed simplified versions of his schema component diagrams. This now uses a single diagram to describe the subset of XML schema on which DFDL is based. Colour distinguishes elements that can appear in XML schema documents from internal supporting constructs. A second diagram is used to provide an informal overview of the language. Simon has updated this to use the same wording and style as the formal diagram, but suggested the group may prefer the existing diagram in the current DFDL specification draft. Simon raised a question regarding the relationship of "Term" and "Particle" - his diagrams allow for a Term that is not part of a Particle, and he wondered whether this was correct. The diagrams are otherwise ready to drop into the specification, but Simon will distribute source files which can be edited in UMLet, in case any further changes are necessary. 2. Other business As per his recent email to the DFDL-WG mailing list, Simon and PolarLake are stepping back from active participation in the DFDL working group, though Simon will continue to monitor the DFDL-WG mailing list informally. On behalf of the group, Alan thanked Simon for his participation, and confirmed that Simon and PolarLake would still like to be listed as contributors to the final draft of the DFDL specification. Meeting closed, 17:25 GMT Ian Parkinson WebSphere ESB Development Mail Point 211, Hursley Park, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, UK 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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Call today is at 5pm GMT so that's 1pm EST (not 12pm)
by Steve Hanson 19 Mar '08

19 Mar '08

Regards, Steve Steve Hanson WebSphere Message Brokers Hursley, UK Internet: smh(a)uk.ibm.com Phone (+44)/(0) 1962-815848

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DFDL: MikeB will not make the call on 3/19
by Mike Beckerle 17 Mar '08

17 Mar '08

On vacation.

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DFDL: Minutes from OGF WG call, 12 Mar 2008
by Ian W Parkinson 13 Mar '08

13 Mar '08

Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group Weekly Working Group Conference Call 17:00 GMT, 12 Mar 2008 Attendees Simon Parker (PolarLake) Ian Parkinson (IBM) Alan Powell (IBM) Apologies Mike Beckerle (Oco) Steve Hanson (IBM) Suman Kalia (IBM) 1. UML Descriptions of Schema Components Followng recent reviews, Simon has distributed simplified versions of his schema component diagrams. This now uses a single diagram to describe the entire DFDL language. Concepts found in XML schema (XSD) are colored yellow, to distinguish from concepts that would not be found in XML schema, which are left white. A second diagram is used to provide an informal overview of the language. Simon has updated this to use the same wording and style as the formal diagram, but suggested the group may prefer the existing diagram in the current DFDL specification draft. Simon raised a question regarding the relationship of "Term" and "Particle" - his diagrams allow for a Term that is not part of a Particle, and he wondered whether this was correct. The diagrams are otherwise ready to drop into the specification, but Simon will distribute source files which can be edited in UMLet, in case any further changes are necessary. 2. Other business As per his recent email to the DFDL-WG mailing list, Simon and PolarLake are stepping back from active participation in the DFDL working group, though Simon will continue to monitor the DFDL-WG mailing list informally. On behalf of the group, Alan thanked Simon for his participation, and confirmed that Simon and PolarLake would still like to be listed as contributors to the final draft of the DFDL specification. Meeting closed, 17:25 GMT Ian Parkinson WebSphere ESB Development Mail Point 211, Hursley Park, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, UK 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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Diagram tool and originals
by Simon Parker 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

I used the UMLet (www.umlet.com) Eclipse plugin to compose the diagrams. Here are the source files for the diagrams in dfdl_schema_abstract_data_model.5.doc Use them as you see fit. I'll continue to lurk in the mailing list. If I can help with a quick answer, just ask. Regards, Simon Simon Parker Software Consultant PolarLake 80 Harcourt Street Dublin 2, Ireland Phone +353 1 449-1075 Fax +353 1 449-1011 Web http://www.polarlake.com/ The information transmitted in this email is intended for the addressee only and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, reliance upon or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the addressee is prohibited. If you think, for any reason, that this message may have been addressed to you in error, we would ask you to notify the sender immediately by return email and delete the material. PolarLake Limited | Registered in Dublin, Ireland | Number 357324 | Registered office as above.

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DFDL schema abstract data model 5
by Simon Parker 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

Good afternoon, gentlemen. As I hoped, it has been possible to combine the three views into one diagram. There are no intentional changes in the terminology or meaning. I've also merged the content of the illustration from the specification with the new style and terms to produce an informal overview diagram. PolarLake has decided that this domain is 'not strategic', and the company will no longer support my participation in the working group. I remain interested in the standard and the group, and I was quite prepared to continue for as long as it takes, but my arguments did not prevail. I already have as many personal projects as I can manage. It would be unrealistic to offer more of my own time, so I must reluctantly withdraw from the group and leave you to work on without me. It has been a pleasure to meet you all. I wish you success in your efforts. Simon Simon Parker Software Consultant PolarLake 80 Harcourt Street Dublin 2, Ireland Phone +353 1 449-1075 Fax +353 1 449-1011 Web http://www.polarlake.com/ The information transmitted in this email is intended for the addressee only and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination, reliance upon or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the addressee is prohibited. If you think, for any reason, that this message may have been addressed to you in error, we would ask you to notify the sender immediately by return email and delete the material. PolarLake Limited | Registered in Dublin, Ireland | Number 357324 | Registered office as above.

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