Quantity "tables"

[Arnold Rots]

Ed,

I appreciate the merits of your argument, but get a bit nervous when I
see space-time coordinate information show up in unstructured quantity
elements - better keep those conforming with a proper STC schema,
linked with coordinate system and all.

  - Arnold

Ed Shaya wrote:
> This is a cross-post with VOTable.
> 
> Simply put XML is hierarchical and a table is not.  Hence,
> there is this misfit between XML tools (XQuery, XPath, XSLT,
> WebServices) and our XML/Table efforts (Astrores, VOTable, XDF,
> Dataset, etc).  XML's hierarchies make it more suitable for
> describing an object's structure.  Tables are compact and
> human-friendly, especially when one gets to large (but not too
> large) amounts of info.  We want it all, but we are struggling
> to make tables fit beautifully into XML, and falling into circles
> of inconsistencies.
> 
> ...
> ======================================================
> <AstroObject type="galaxy" name="NGC 300">
>     <Quantity type="altname" name="PGC 
> Num"><value>3238</value><units><unitless/></units></Quantity>
>     <Group name="position">
>         <Quantity type="RA
>        
>  J2000"><value>00:54:52.6</value><units><unit>xs:time</unit></units></Quantity>
>         <Quantity type="DE 
> J2000"><value>-37:40:57</value><units><unit>sexigesimal</unit></units></Quantity>
>     </Group>
>     <Quantity type="Galactic_long" 
> name="l"><value>299.2306</value><units><unit>degree</unit></units></Quantity>
>     <Quantity type="Galactic_lat" 
> name="b"><value>-79.4210</value><units><unit>degree</unit></units></Quantity>
>     <Quantity 
> type="SGL"><value>259.8113</value><units><unit>degree</unit></units></Quantity>
>     <Quantity 
> type="SGB"><value>-9.4984</value><units><unit>degree</unit></units></Quantity>
>     <Quantity type="brightness absolute B total" 
> name="B_T"><value>8.95</value><units><unit>magnitude</unit></units></Quantity>
> 
> ...
> Ed
> 
> 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arnold H. Rots                                Chandra X-ray Science Center
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                tel:  +1 617 496 7701
60 Garden Street, MS 67                              fax:  +1 617 495 7356
Cambridge, MA 02138                             arots at head.cfa.harvard.edu
USA                                     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------