1 Nils, defaults and unparsing  
Continue review proposal emailed by Alan



2  OGF 29  

Chicago, June 20-22

Suman was unable to get authorization to attend.

3 Current Actions



4 Trailing alignment with lengthKind delimited or endOfParent

Is it sensible to allow Trailing skip bytes with LK delimited

The grammar says that trailing alignment is applied before the separator


So the parser must search for the separator then remove the trailing bytes from the value and length.


@Data1   *Data2*#       -  Test1 value=Data1 length=5

@Data1*Data2*#          -  Test1 value=Da length=2   (do we require that the trailing data must be the fillByte?)


But bear in mind that the grammar effectively says:


     RightFraming = Terminator TrailingSkipBytes


So the combination of dfdl:lengthKind="delimited" & dfdl:trailingSkipBytes would work when the delimiter is a terminator


Steve was keen that there was consistent behaviour over different lengthKinds  so that we shouldn't just disallow trailingSkipBytes for delimited. We discussed allowing TSB when terminator was specified. Alan to propose wording.

5  More on bit oriented formats
Steve has been looking at a bit oriented format from the space industry

The 'unused' fields could be defined as hidden or as leading/trailing skip bytes of a nearby field. But LSB and TSB are specified in bytes only.

Steve proposed that LSB and TSB should be renamed leadingSkip and trailingSkip and can be specified in bits or bytes as specified by alignmentUnits or a new property skipUnits

6 separatorPolicy with optional fields and variable arrays.
In particular:
- separatorPolicy 'required' with variable arrays

- supressAtEnd with required fields that have defaults.

7 DFDL property types.
Tim has proposed more specific types for some properties. In particular separating the different kinds of entities.

Current Actions:
No
Action
066
Investigate format for defining test cases
25/11:IBM to see if it is possible to publish its test case format.
04/12: no update
...
17/02: IBM is willing in principle to publish the test case format and some of the test cases. May need some time to build a 'compliance suite'
24/03: No progress
03/03: Discussions have been taking place on the subset of tests that will be provided.
10/03: work is progressing
17/03: work is progressing
31/03: work is progressing
14/04: And XML test case format has been defined and is being tested.
21/04. Schema for TDML defined. Need to define how this and the test cases will be made public
05/05: Work still progressing
12/05: Work still progressing
02/06: Work still progressing on technical and legal considerations
085
ALL: publicize Public comments phase to ensure a good review..
14/04: see minutes
21/04: Press release, OMG and other standards bodies.
05/05: Alan and Steve H have contacted other standards bodies. Will ask them to add comments on spec
15/05: still no public comments
02/06: No public comments
086
AP: Nils and Defaults during unparsing - update table
31/03: TK to documetn use cases for parsing
14/04: Investigate new property to control empty string behaviour.
21/04: After investigation a new property is not required. New rules developed and tables updated.
Need examples of complexTypes to confirm tables apply.
Review Nils, defaulting spec section.
05/05: Discussed defaulting complex elements. Tables updated but need to add terminator.
SH; to confirm WMD behaviour when infoset item has no value on unparsing
Need to describe defaulting choices.
15/05: More discussion. Alan updating sections
26/05: Discussed draft updates. Stephanie to confirm asserts do not make an element required.
Alan will update draft..  All: review rest of draft.
02/06: Alan updated description. Please review.
Discussed Stephanie's example using discriminators. Decided no changes needed.
088
define semantics of choiceKind 'fixedLength'
31/03: TK to provide definition of calculable length.
Investigate  PL/I varchars and Cobol occurs dependingon.
14/04Tim had distributed a document starting the definition of calculable length for the longest choice member.
Alan had done some investigation of COBOL occurs depending on and when used in the working section of a program then the maximum storage was reserved but when used in the linkage section the dependent number was uses. We need to understand how the WMB COBOL importer deals with ODO.
21/04: Need to define 'calculable length' and WMB importer ODO behaviour.
05/05: TK: Still need definition of calculable length.
SKK: WMB COBOL imported behaviour with ODO
15/05: Suman sent an expmle of an imported Cobol ODo which suggested that the maximum space was reserved. He will extend the example.
02/06: no progress
092
AP: Confirm behaviour of defaulting with various occursCountKinds
093
AP: Describe trailingSkipBytes for delimited formats.


 
Regards
 
Alan Powell
 
Development - MQSeries, Message Broker, ESB
IBM Software Group, Application and Integration Middleware Software
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