DAL software (and situation)

[Markus Demleitner]

Hi DAL folks,

Some points on TAP:

(a) tapsh

I've written a TAP client in the spirit of the usual DB clients.
It's available from http://vo.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/soft/tapsh.
For people not on apt-based systems, installation is a bit of a
chore, and I'd appreciate contributions to make things easier in
particular on proprietary systems (where I could well imagine it
would require cygwin on windows right now; patches to remedy that are
welcome).  Other feedback is, of course, also welcome, as is
mentioning it on the various VO software pages.

(b) DaCHS

For people wanting to run TAP servers, GAVO's data center suite
definitely is easier than writing something themselves.  Installation
and operation still is quite an endeavour, though, and given the
complexity of the matter I doubt I can ever make it "easy". I promise to
support people as best I can, though.  If interested, see
http://vo.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/soft/dachs

(c) The state of the TAP sphere

Well...  I've asked around here already, so here's the situation as I
see it: It's not pretty.  Most TAP servers in the registry are driven
by DSA, which is a severely incomplete implementation (no TAP_SCHEMA,
outdated ADQL -- which is particularly confusing to users in that
balid ADQL comes back with a cryptic error message --, some UWS
responses in non-spec formats); then, there's Pat's server that is on
the way of being registred (any news here?), and there's mine.  tapsh
can talk to all of them, obviously with some non-critical operations
failing.

There's highly interesting data out on the DSA-driven servers, but
there's still much more exciting astronomical data out there that's
missing.  So, I'd be quite curious as to people's plans to publish TAP
services.  Plug: I'd be delighted to bring people's data on TAP...

(d) GloTS

Some of tapsh's usefulness comes from easy inspectability of columns
and tables available via TAP.  To provide this, I've set up the
Global TAP Schema that harvests the registry and, where available,
the server's TAP_SCHEMAs (ok, so sue me because it's quite
pedestrian).  If you have public TAP servers not yet in the registry,
please tell me about them, preferably togehter with the IVO id you'll
give it as you register it.

(e) Registry issues

I vaguely remember someone wanted to take up the registry extension
for TAP.  If I can help with it, please let me know.  Also, with
tapsh and DaCHS I again felt it was a pity that there's no
VOApplication in the registries.  There's been little enthusiasm for
this idea on the side of people providing useful VO software, though,
so I'm not actually proposing to push it -- just regard this as an 
obnoxious ceterum censeo.

Cheers,

               Markus