TAP-1.0 Erratum 5: VOTable usage in TAP - deferred decision

[Mark Taylor]

On Tue, 6 Jun 2017, Marco Molinaro wrote:

> Dear DAL,
> while the other proposed errata for TAP-1.0 have
> been accepted at the Shanghai Interop TCG meeting,
> the 5th one has been deferred, with the requirement
> for more discussion
> 
> You can find the Erratum rationale and discussion at
> 
> http://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/TAP-1_0-Err-5
> 
> Please consider reviewing it and discuss it on this list.
> 
> If I remember correctly (Mark, please, comment/correct),
> the erratum was deferred because it assumes an error
> response has no table attached.
> It is not clear whether this is always the case.

I'm not sure if I'm the target Mark here or not ... anyway I think
you're right that the suggested replacement sec 2.9 text:

   The VOTable must contain a RESOURCE element identified with the
   attribute type='results', containing exactly one TABLE element with
   the results of the query if the job execution was successful or no
   TABLE element if the job execution failed to produce a result.

is more restrictive than required, and might outlaw behaviour
that according to the existing text would have been legal.
I would suggest instead:

   The VOTable must contain a RESOURCE element identified with the 
   attribute type='results'.  In case of successful job execution,
   this must contain exactly one TABLE element with the results of
   the query.  [In case of job failure, the TABLE element may be absent.]

The final sentence in square brackets is not required, but it could
be added for clarification.

The suggested replacement text for sec 2.9.1 looks good to me
as it stands.

Mark (Taylor)

--
Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-9288776  http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/