Elements to add to TabularSkyService

[Ray Plante]

On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, Roy Williams wrote:
> Why is this schema being rebuilt? Why not use the VOTable defintiton of
> Quantity -- that ios already been through the standards process?

I think discussion of this question is approaching "ad nauseum" level.

To recap: an earlier version of VODataService did just what you 
recommended--it imported VOTable.xsd and used FIELD in place of what is 
now column.  This was later pulled out because of objections to depending 
on VOTable which some see as eventually becoming obsolete.  Regardless of 
whether one believes this, this was necessary to obtain concensus.  

Today, it would not be simple to go back since VOTable uses a different 
definition style (based on global elements).  While, as Martin points out, 
it does make it easier for us to extend the descriptions of columns, we 
nevertheless need to keep our abstract column data model close to that of 
VOTable so that it is easy to convert from one to the other.  

cheers,
Ray