Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group
Weekly Working Group Conference Call
13:00 GMT, 24 September 2008
Attendees
Mike Beckerle (Oco)
Alan Powell (IBM)
Apologies
Steve Hanson (IBM)
1. Physical to Logical type conversions.
Discussed table distributed by AP
Simple type
text (+ xml)
binary
String
n/a
Float
??
FloatFormat:
IEEE, IBM390Hex
Double
??
FloatFormat:
IEEE, IBM390Hex
Decimal/Integer
NumberFormat:
text, zoned
NumberFormat:
packed, BCD
Long, Int, Short, Byte,
NumberFormat:
text, zoned
NumberFormat:
packed, BCD, twosComplement, binary
UnsignedLong, Unsignedint, Unsignedshort, Unsignedbyte
NumberFormat:
text, zoned
NumberFormat:
packed, BCD, binary
DateTime
Date
Time
Duration
Boolean
HexBinary
Agreed to keep FloatFormat rather than FloatBinaryFormat and not to have
NumberTextFormat and NumberBinaryFormat. Reduces the number of properties.
No need to add text to floatFormat
Add NumberFormat Binary to do the 'normal' cases ie twoscomplement for
signed types and unsigned binary for unsigned types. Remove
twoscomplement. Can add other signed formats like onescomplement later
when supported
Keep zoned for unsigned text even though it will produce the same output
as text but it also limits the allowable NumberPattern.
Remove BCD from Long etc
Need to investigate calendar/date text and binary formats. Add to existing
action
2. WTX unresolved items.
Last weeks decisions:
3,4 agreed to drop textCharacterSize and DBCSOnly from dfdl V1
7 Padding; deferred pending proposal from IBM (WTX)
9 Add zeroRequiredOnInput to meet WTX requirement - resolved
17 finalTerminatorCanBeMissing, finalPostFixSeparatorCanBeMissing.
Agreed to drop these properties and change the default syntax of
terminator and postFixSeparator to be optional on parsing the last element
of a sequence but always written on unparsing.
Continued this weeks:
20 unordered sequence does not necessarily need initiator, speculative
parsing can work it out too.
Discussed relaxing initiator restriction and infoset order
Decided to add enum unorderedInitiated to sequenceKind for unordered
initiated item and change unordered to be resolved by speculative parsing
sequenceKind
Enum
Valid values are "ordered", "unordered" "unorderedInitiated"
This property cannot have an expression used to compute its value.
When "ordered", this property means that the contained items of the
sequence will be encountered in the same order that they appear in the
schema, which is called schema-definition-order.
When "unordered", this property means that the items of the sequence will
be encountered in any order.
When "unorderedInitiated", this property means that the items of the
sequence will be encountered in any order, but each item must have an
initiator
Annotation: dfdl:sequence
The infoset order for unordered and unorderedInitiated is the order in the
datastream.
25. ChoiceKind fixed or variable
These are still needed. Decided to leave choiceKind as a single property
but change fixed and variable longestLength and variableLength
27 OccursKind for delimited arrays.
occurskind = delimited had been removed in error and will be put back.
occurskind renamed to occursLenghtKind
7 padding
AP has done more investigation and main deficiency vs WTX is lack of
support for pad to miminum length for variable length items. Agreed to add
this. Will use minLength facet for strings and the number pattern for Text
numbers.
4. AOB
Will discuss End of Data next week
Next call 1st Oct
Meeting closed, 14:05 GMT
Actions raised at this meeting
No
Action
Current Actions:
No
Action
003
AP: Update spec from WTX document
13/8: All resolved issues have been added to spec. Remaining unresolved
items need discussion
10/9: Alan will pull out the remaining unresolved items and circulate for
discussion next week
17/9: Doc distributed and partially discussed
004
MB: Mike will also author a new section in response to comments from Sandy
Gao and Suman Kalia, explicitly connecting syntax with DFDL semantics
16/7: no progress
10/9: Mike not convinced this is necessary. Steve to talk to Sandy to see
if it is needed for any IBM implementation that extends the existing XML
parsing framework
006
SH: Distribute hidden proposal
16/7: Done. MB to review
13/8: MB to review
10/9: Mike has located this and will review
17/9: Proposal agreed
007
AP: enum + expression wording
13/8: no progress
10/9: No update
17/9: No update
011
SH: Update decimal supplement
13/8: Editorial changes needed.
10/9: Alan to incorporate into main spec
17/9: No update
012
??: Update decimalCalendarScheme
10/9: Not allocated yet
17/9: No update
24/9: add calendar binary formats to actions
013
MB: Description and use cases for EndofData syntax
10/9: Steve didn't receive this mail, he now has and will review
014
SH: Use cases for lengthKind pattern on binary fields.
10/9: Not done
17/9: No update
015
AP: removed extended floats
10/9: No update
17/9: No update
016
AP: add hidden changes to spec
017
All: Review EndOfData changes
033 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)
004
Selectors (Suman) - Apr 30, 2008
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) - *complete but
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 *
013
(from F2F) New scoping rules
014
(from F2F) Occurs, OccurSeparator changes
015
(from F2F) choices and Output (Mike)
016
(from F2F) xpath forward references (Alan) *complete*
017
(IBM WTX review) Minor agreed updates (Alan) *complete*
018
(IBM WTX review) Review generateNewLine (Alan) *complete*
020
(IBM WTX review) Special value for zero seen eg 'zero'. (Steve)
021
(IBM WTX review) 'EndOfData' changes (Alan)
022
(IBM WTX review) Unresolvable choices - infoset changes *complete*
023
(IBM WTX review) separatorKind=?prefix? ?infix? or ?postfix? (Alan)
024
(IBM WTX review) StopValue clarification (Alan)
025
Augmented infoset and unparsing (Alan)
Alan Powell
MP 211, IBM UK Labs, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, England
Notes Id: Alan Powell/UK/IBM email: alan_powell(a)uk.ibm.com
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