On the "when" and "where"

[Roy Williams]

Matthew

> So what if STC is a complex XML structure - I as an astronomer
> am never going to be reading XML.

If there is a reliable, well-maintained software package in all the fashionable 
languages, then you are right. I would just link my parser to that package and ask 
the questions I need to know. ("is the event location within the coverage of my 
deep-imaging survey?")

If, on the other hand, such software is not available, then you are wrong, and people 
will not make parsers for STC. Instead we will get an ad hoc lowest common 
denominator, something terribly limited (eg RA and Dec and MJD) but with the 
advantage that a parser can be whipped up in half an hour.

The best would be a combination of sophistication and simplicity that somehow 
combines these approaches.

Roy

--------
California Institute of Technology
roy at caltech.edu
626 395 3670