MIVOT implementor feedback 1: RESOURCE location

[Markus Demleitner]

Dear DM,

On Wed, Dec 14, 2022 at 12:31:58PM -0500, CresitelloDittmar, Mark wrote:
> If I recall, it was originally that the annotation syntax would be in the
> first RESOURCE of the VOTABLE, making it a simple insert with minimal
> impact on the native VOTABLE.  When it moved into the 'results' RESOURCE, I
> think we wanted it to retain that 'minimal impact' on the native VOTABLE,
> so required it to be the first child.
> 
> I think that operationally it shouldn't matter where it resides within the
> parent RESOURCE since there can be only 1 annotation block per 'results'
> block.

Whatever the history: Looking again, when you put the annotation into
the RESOURCE it annotates anyway (which I think will make Mark
Taylor's life simpler when he merges multiple VOTables into one, so I
won't argue against it), you could drop the extra RESOURCE around the
VODML element entirely.

Just write the VODML element directly into the RESOURCE with the
table (or whatever) and be done with it.  This actually has the
advantage that parsing clients already have seen all the ID-s you are
talking about, because syntactically, this means VODML is at the end
of the RESOURCE.

Thanks,

          Markus