On Oct 8, 2006, at 9:53 PM, Jonathan McDowell wrote:
> arrays like <Flux>1.2 1.3 1.4 ... </Flux> where all data
> point attributes are in separate arrays, instead of having
> Point No. 1 (flux, err, spco, ...) then Point No. 2 (flux, err,
> spco...)
> etc.
Just as a matter of interest, you may recall a big fight between VOEvent and Space-Time Coordinates, about a year. The main sticking point was the use of arrays in this manner, which some parsers and code-binders would not accept. The resolution was that STC agreed to give up XML arrays and make the array elements into separate XML elements. Therefore I urge you not to use these XML arrays again. Or if you insist on doing so, please justify by doing the hard work in advance to decide if these are parsable easily by the people who would use them.
On a larger point, let is not get caught in the trap of trying to make "readable XML". If the XML is too verbose, it is time to get computers to read and write it instead of using notepad and vi ;-) If there is a timing inefficiency in processing too much XML, then use a binary format. Remind me, is there a FITS serialization for the Spectrum Data Model?
Roy
California Institute of Technology
626 395 3670
Received on 2006-10-09Z16:51:54