Summary: features for VOEvent v2.0

[Alasdair Allan]

I also heartily endorse this vision for V2.0. Well done Rob, perhaps a  
clear path forward at last.

Cheers,
Al.
-- 
Sent from my iPhone.

On 10 Apr 2010, at 00:37, Matthew Graham <mjg at cacr.caltech.edu> wrote:

> Hi Rob,
>
> I think that this is the clearest summary of what is in VOEvent 2.0  
> that I've yet seen.
>
>    Cheers,
>
>    Matthew
>
> On Apr 9, 2010, at 4:28 PM, Rob Seaman wrote:
>
>>> How is a v1.1 packet compliant with a prose specification for a  
>>> later version? Every entity in the packet retains its original  
>>> structure in the later version?
>>
>> <SimpleTimeSeries> and/or <SimpleTables> are new elements.  They  
>> will be optional.
>>
>> Ephemerides and orbital elements are conforming STC - the intent  
>> is, if anything, to simplify the implementation of  
>> <ObsDataLocation> in the v2.0 VOEvent schema.  (The floor is open  
>> for discussion regarding the details.)
>>
>> The <Reference> and <Param> typing will be additional (but  
>> optional) attributes and/or looser constraints on the values of  
>> those attributes.
>>
>> <Params> are currently empty elements - permitting them to have  
>> values (should this be the consensus) will not deprecate the  
>> currently empty expressions.
>>
>> Any change to <Inferences> under <Why> (for v2.0, anyway) will be  
>> restricted to adding attributes and/or elements or loosening  
>> previous restrictions.  Any such changes will be modest in scope.
>>
>> Finally, I do not believe that we need to retain compliance with  
>> packets that nobody ever has or ever will create.  Aside from  
>> simplifying our usage of STC, all changes will be relaxing prior  
>> restrictions.  In some Platonic world, requiring more stringent  
>> limitations on <ObsDataLocation> (however achieved) would be deemed  
>> to blast backwards compatibility into smithereens.  This is not  
>> that world.
>>
>> I presume that projects parsing packets using Eli Whitney era  
>> technology do not care about the change to the explicit version in  
>> the packet header.
>>
>> Rob
>>
>