For call today. Regards Steve Hanson Architect, Data Format Description Language (DFDL) Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group IBM SWG, Hursley, UK smh@uk.ibm.com tel:+44-1962-815848 ----- Forwarded by Steve Hanson/UK/IBM on 08/11/2011 09:20 ----- From: Steve Hanson/UK/IBM To: Tim Kimber/UK/IBM@IBMGB Cc: Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com> Date: 07/11/2011 09:50 Subject: Re: question on nilValueDelimiterPolicy I'll add to the agenda for DFDL WG call. Regards Steve Hanson Architect, Data Format Description Language (DFDL) Co-Chair, OGF DFDL Working Group IBM SWG, Hursley, UK smh@uk.ibm.com tel:+44-1962-815848 From: Tim Kimber/UK/IBM To: Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com> Cc: Steve Hanson/UK/IBM@IBMGB Date: 04/11/2011 22:57 Subject: Re: question on nilValueDelimiterPolicy Mike, I agree - I've raised this point before. I have always felt that nilValueDelimiterPolicy should not apply to nilLogicalValue ( regardless of whether the type is xs:string ). The existing definition makes life very hard for implementers, and does not solve any pressing problems as far as I can see. regards, Tim Kimber, Common Transformation Team, Hursley, UK Internet: kimbert@uk.ibm.com Tel. 01962-816742 Internal tel. 246742 From: Mike Beckerle <mbeckerle.dfdl@gmail.com> To: Steve Hanson/UK/IBM@IBMGB, Tim Kimber/UK/IBM@IBMGB Date: 04/11/2011 18:34 Subject: question on nilValueDelimiterPolicy Suppose <sequence separator=","> <element name="x" type="int" nillable="true" dfdl:initiator="x:" dfdl:terminator=";" dfdl:nilKind="logicalValue" dfdl:nilValue="-1" maxOccurs="3"/> </sequence> Now, if nilValueDelimiterPolicy="none", then some non-nils for this would be: [x:42;,x:3;,x:0;] A nil for the middle one would be [x:42;,-1,x:0;] Does this feel broken to you? I.e., it seems very wierd to have a nilKind="logicalValue", but use different initiator/terminator conventions. Now if type="string", or if type is not string, but nilKind="literalValue", then having different initiator/terminator conventions makes some sense, but when the nilValues are a reserved in-band non-string value it seems wierd to me. Comments? -- Mike Beckerle | OGF DFDL WG Co-Chair Tel: 781-330-0412 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