Comments on Spectrum Data Model 0.9

[Markus Dolensky]

> The reason for that limitation is obviously coming from  mapping the model 
> attributes/xml elements to PARAMS, and not to FIELDS in a (VO) TABLE.

Nope.
PARAM elements are a shortcut for table columns which contain only a 
single distinct value in all cells. In practice all PARAM elements could 
become columns.

In the given example most attributes are given as PARAM elements rather 
than FIELDs, since otherwise it would be a very wide table, and 
therefore impracticle for a human reader of the document. In practice 
when a software client consumes the data this will be different, of course.

> If the authors of the draft are interested I can send a slightly modified version of the
> proposed VOTABLE serialisation, which I think is more general 

Surely yes.
There's a sample file on the Wiki which got updated a few days ago:
http://www.ivoa.net/internal/IVOA/IvoaDAL/ssample1.xml

Cheers,
Markus