Definitive version of the VOTable schema for web services

[Maria A. Nieto-Santisteban]

Once upon a time there was no astronomer who would know about fortran, C, 
C++, Java, python, IDL, SQL, awk, perl but they heared it was good for 
their research and they learned. Many, but not all astronomers want to see 
the stuff only with TopCat, Aladin, or alike tools.

Maria

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, Anita M. S. Richards 
wrote:

>
> Even as an astronomer who does "turn up to IVOA meetings", Mark is still 
> right, I don't even want a VOTable per se, I just want my data in a form 
> where the first time I see it, will be a plot in TopCat or Aladin, or an 
> ascii table written out from a conversion tool,.  Or, if it is e.g. a SIAP 
> VOTable, a tree of images in Aladin. VOTable happens to be the handiest way 
> to move this, and as a data provider, I can figure out how to write VOTables, 
> just about.
>
> If I want a very large amount of data I might be prepared to substitute a few 
> variables in an example script but any more than that and it takes too much 
> time.  Most astronomers haven't a clue what SOAP, WDSL or even code bindings 
> are, other than some magic.
>
> cheers
> a
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Dr. A.M.S. Richards, AstroGrid Astronomer,
> Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of 
> Manchester, M13 9PL
> +44 (0)161 275 4124
> and
> MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire SK11 9DL, 
> U.K. +44 (0)1477 571321 (tel) 571618 (fax)
>
>
> On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, Mark Taylor wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, Ray Plante wrote:
>> 
>>> On Tue, 29 Jul 2008, Matthew Graham wrote:
>>>> The code-binding approach, however, is supposed to be easier for end 
>>>> users (astronomers) who know (and want to know) nothing about 
>>>> constructing SOAP messages and WSDL.
>>> 
>>> I definitely sympathize with this sentiment, and if it is possible to 
>>> change the VOTable spec to work better with code binders, I think we 
>>> should do it.
>> 
>> Do we believe that astronomers are likely to get their hands dirty with web 
>> services even using such "easy" ways of working as code-binding tools?
>> Excluding the kinds of people who read these lists and turn up to IVOA 
>> meetings I don't know anyone who falls into this category.
>> But maybe I just don't get out much.
>> 
>>> That said, I'm actually not sure that the code binding approach is that 
>>> much easier when you consider the quality of the API (into a complex 
>>> structure) compared to your favorite, hand-hewn VOTable library.
>> 
>> Yes.  Putting these two points together I'm not sure that this line of
>> reasoning is itself a good reason for change (though I'm not necessarily
>> weighing in on either side of the do-we-change-VOTable-schema debate
>> overall).
>> 
>> Mark
>> 
>> -- 
>> Mark Taylor   Astronomical Programmer   Physics, Bristol University, UK
>> m.b.taylor at bris.ac.uk +44-117-928-8776 http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/
>> 
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------
Maria A. Nieto-Santisteban (nieto at pha.jhu.edu)
Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles St.
Physics & Astronomy Department
Baltimore, MD 21218 (USA)

Tel: 	1 410 516-7679  Fax: 	1 410 516-5096