Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group Weekly Working Group Conference Call 17:00 GMT, 28 Nov 2007 Attendees Mike Beckerle (IBM) Geoff Judd (IBM) Steve Hanson (IBM) Ian Parkinson (IBM) Alan Powell (IBM) 1. Introduction The agenda, distributed by Mike prior to the call, covered two main items for discussion. A proposal has been circulated to the DFDL-WG mailing list, describing the use of annotated simple types for describing length prefixes, which had already been discussed within IBM. In the absense of Simon Parker or representatives from parties other than IBM, the meeting opted not to discuss this proposal at this time. 2. Plan for contents of next draft The distributed agenda included a draft list of items to be included in the next draft of the DFDL specification. Steve queried the 'integer type added' item: Mike explained there had been a debate over support for both the integer XSD type and the decimal type. We had previously opted to support both, as the canonical representation for decimal includes a trailing ".0" on integers, which may be confusing for users. Mike would like to prepare, along similar lines, a plan covering several draft versions of the specification. Some work items, such as the SWIFT example, would be omitted from the plan as they do not directly concern the text of the specification. Mike's plan will be distributed via the DFDL-WG mailing list. Alan asked if we should set a target date for completion of the specification. Mike observed that we had previously set target dates that had not been achieved; however Steve felt that as we are in a position to plan the next few drafts of the specification, a target date is likely to be more reasonable. 3. Other business Steve has been revisiting the decimal supplement, and has found some errors. Mike observed that it would be desirable for DFDL's support of packed decimal numbers and floating point numbers to be analogous. One complexity lies in the number of types of packed decimal that DFDL needs to support (including 'pure', unsigned packed, IBM packed, and zoned decimal), along with variants, which Mike felt might best be addressed through a small pattern language. Steve would investigate this further. Meeting closed, 17:30 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