progress on TAP

[Keith Noddle]

Hi Fabio,

Thank you for this. There will be one TAP standard and I withdraw my 
proposal. The good thing is that Pat's proposed restructuring can 
deliver the best of both worlds; a TAP standard we can finalise quickly 
and full support for ADQL and Parametrised Querying in a concise and 
resilient format. We must consider it seriously.

The work that remains is to finalise the Service Interfaces, the 
mandatory and optional query forms and to resolve the 
VODataService/VOTable issue raised by François and Guy. Whatever we 
decide, these three items have to be resolved. The course we choose now 
will strongly influence the quality of the final result.

Keith.

---

> Dear all,
>  
> I have been following the recent discussions and would like to make a 
> comment, of course not
> of technical nature, but basically on the procedural side.
>  
> The way of proceeding in the IVOA, in my experience, has always been 
> progressing by consensus
> and sticking to the decisions agreed upon.
>  
> Some of the e-mail which appeared on the DAL distribution list did not 
> follow this approach, and reiterated old arguments which had already 
> been settled, in Trieste and even before.
>  
> My opinion is that Keith's original proposal of having two different 
> version of the document, the first for TAP/QL (mandatory) and a second 
> one for TAP/Param (optional), has its value because it separates the 
> sequence of agreements. But that is true *if and only if* the document 
> is to remain a single one, i.e. if the standard remains just one.
>  
> The current agreement is that TAP 1) must have ADQL capability, and 2) 
> it will have Param capability as an option. Let's please stick to this 
> decision. Going back to the community at the next interop saying that we 
> are back at square one, at the time we should be deploying services long 
> awaited for, would be extremely depressing. Would hate to move further 
> away from the goal line: I think I am with Ray on this one. 
>  
> I would finally like to urge that the DAL group, learning from mistakes 
> made in the past, prepares a document which is clear and usable by 
> implementors, with no ambiguities. This is what the community needs, 
> fast. You are almost there, please do the extra effort of taking a fresh 
> unbiased look at things and of completing the 5% which is still missing.
>  
> Frendliest regards, Fabio


-- 
Keith Noddle                    Phone:  +44 (0)116 223 1894
AstroGrid Project manager       Fax:    +44 (0)116 252 3311
Dept of Physics & Astronomy     Mobile: +44 (0)7721 926 461
University of Leicester         Skype:  keithnoddle
Leicester                       Email:  ktn at star.le.ac.uk
LE1 7RH, UK                     Web:    http://www.astrogrid.org