VO STC & RTML

[Frederic V. Hessman]

Under http://monet.uni-sw.gwdg.de/twiki/bin/view/RTML/VOCompatibility  
you'll
find a short comparison of current VO STC and STCcoord elements and
RTML (3.0h).

I made the comparison in order to help us judge (1) whether we should
consider adopting the upcoming VO standards (at least in their present  
form; STC 1.1) in
RTML in the short- to medium-term and (2) to what extent one could  
create VOEvent
out of present STC and RTML elements.

My initial reaction is that using STC 1.1 makes things unnecessarily  
complicated
for classical telescope scheduling.  Both schemas show distinctly where  
their authors
were coming from as they were being developed: RTML was supposed to  
encapsulate
common astronomical knowledge and usage in the frame of operating  
telescopes in
as simple a manner as possible whereas STC is basically supposed to  
provide a formal
and hence complicated and often theoretical representation of existing  
coordinates.

Admittedly, STC would provide a framework in which the positions of  
terrestrial and
space observatories can be described - the latter is currently lacking  
in RTML - but
even STC doesn't provide more than a framework for choosing different
frames (e.g. terrestrial lat-long-altitude versus some as yet  
unimplemented
orbital coordinates).

Rick

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Dr. Frederic V. Hessman      Hessman at Astro.physik.Uni-Goettingen.DE
Universitaets-Sternwarte     Tel.  +49-551-39-5052
Geismarlandstr. 11                Fax +49-551-39-5043
37083 Goettingen                 http://www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/~hessman
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