A modest proposal for VOEvent

[Roy Williams]

>> Here's a very good role for a simple VOEvent vocabulary:
>>
>>     <Param name="q" type="voe:massRatio" ...> ...
>>     <Param name="e" type="voe:orbitalEccentricity" ...> ...
>>     <Param name="i" type="voe:orbitalInclination" ...> ...


I believe that the existing standard covers semantic tagging very well, 
without any compelling need for change. I do not see that 
type="voe:orbitalEccentricity" carries any more semantic information 
than ucd="src.orbital.eccentricity", which we have already agreed is the 
preferred semantic mechanism of VOEvent.

>> P.S. Does the current schema allow <Param>value</Param> or must one 
>> use attributes?  Wouldn't this be a good change?

No it is NOT a good change! I have written thousands of lines of code 
around the existing standard for the Param element, so I can see a big 
cost for me at least if this change happens.

Please don't make arbitrary changes. VOEvent is complex enough already!
Roy

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California Institute of Technology
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