Serialising vs modelling

[Alberto Micol]

Thanks a lot Gerard,

I think your message makes crystal clear what we have to do now, that is:

- Analysis (English)
- Design (UML)
- Serialiasation (XML)

And in fact all that is part of the charter of this wg:
( excerpt from http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaDataModelFaq )

> (1) A white paper discussing and naming the concepts involved and 
> describing the model and its intent in text form.
>
> (2) A set of UML diagrams (including at least class diagrams) 
> constituting a formal definition of the model.
>
> (3) An XML schema file providing a reference serialization of the 
> model. The schema does not define the model, but validates it and 
> clarifies the intent of the model. XML document instances should also 
> be provided as examples.
>
I add that development is obviously not part of the charter,
but it is welcome in a prototype phase to test ideas, understand 
implications,
measure performance, etc.

The problem of the mailing list is that we usually hear about development
and somehow about design (usually mixing the two), without going through 
the analysis part.
And that's probably why we see different people talking slightly different
languages depending on their own understanding of the problems.
Only after proper analysis, I think, we will be able to speak all the 
same language
and to reach faster, or at least less painfully, our goals.

Damn I hate to pontificate or preach, but I ended up doing it.
Please do not hate me, I already do.

But I do take my share of responsibility, since I was in the group that 
should have come up with requirements, but I never managed to work on that!
I hate myself twice ...
(The fact that work started even without such requirements is puzzling, 
though).

Alberto