Implied separatorSuppressionPolicy for occursCountKind Implied separatorSuppressionPolicy for occursCountKind ''''expression expression expression '''' (All)
10/6: Spec says it is 'never' (positional sequence) but you have to parse to identify the position, so isn't that non-positional?

I think there are two alternative definitions of 'positional':
a) the identity of every delimited field is known before parsing of the sequence group begins
b) the identity of every delimited field is known before parsing of the field begins

As an implementer, b) is sufficient because it means that the parser never needs to backtrack while parsing the group.
a) allows the field identities to be statically known, but that is less important - it does not allow optimised extraction of a particular field as would be the case for a fixed-length group ( the possibility of escaped separators/terminators means that every character will need to be scanned anyway ).

It may sound like a small point, but it affects two decisions
1. whether ock='expression' should be allowed within a positional sequence group ( action 261 )
2. what the behaviour of the unparser should be w.r.t. ock='expression'.

My own feeling is that ock='expression' should be treated almost exactly like ock='fixed', except that the calculated array length N is used instead of maxOccurs.
- When parsing a positional sequence group it should cause N delimiters to be expected for the array.
- When unparsing a positional sequence group it should cause N delimiters to be written.
These rules are consistent and straightforward to describe and implement. The current rule ( unparser outputs the occurrences that are in the info set only ) allows the unparser to write a document that cannot be parsed using the same schema.

regards,

Tim Kimber,

----- Forwarded by Tim Kimber/UK/IBM on 10/06/2014 20:34 -----

From:        Steve Hanson/UK/IBM@IBMGB
To:        dfdl-wg@ogf.org,
Date:        10/06/2014 17:57
Subject:        [DFDL-WG] OGF DFDL WG Call Minutes 2014-06-10
Sent by:        dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org

---

Please find minutes from the above call at http://redmine.ogf.org/dmsf_files/13263?download=

Regards

Steve Hanson
Architect, IBM DFDL,
Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group
IBM SWG, Hursley, UK
smh@uk.ibm.com
tel:+44-1962-815848 --
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