VOEvent session

[Rob Seaman]

On Dec 10, 2010, at 3:20 PM, Mike Fitzpatrick wrote:

> I WOULD support the idea of TimeSeries in the simple table scheme since it can
> convey the same data.  I WOULD also support (as a developer) changes needed
> to work with the IVOA-standard TS serialization.

If the SimpleTable construct survives into a v2.0 Rec, then everybody will have to support a time series in such a representation.  There would be no way to forbid that the table doesn't contain a time series (or a supermarket shopping list, for that matter).

This is the strongest argument for SimpleTimeSeries - that it can only contain a time series.

The weakest argument for a SimpleTable is that it can contain literally anything.

The original notion was to enhance the VOEvent reference "glue" to transparently support linking to entrained data products such as VOTables.  SimpleTimeSeries were included directly in the schema because the nature of collecting follow-up observations is to build time series.  Roy made cogent arguments for why SimpleTables might be appropriate within the packet itself (ie, lots of telegrams contain non-time series tables).  So here we are.

We need to settle this issue.  (Capitalizing subjunctive verbs seems rather passive aggressive, however :-)

> Roy follows up with the message on a simple Table element, unless there is a 
> technical reason we can't do TS with that then (may we need to add a PARAM?)
> I don't see a need for anything else (other than the IVOA-version of a TS).

Vote registered.

Rob