Re: Response to TAP presentations

About the way the metadata are returned -- I thought I was clear enough this morning about which method is prefered, but it seems I was not clear enough after short discussions with other attendees. Therefore I state it clearly: an empty VOTable is the preferred way for several reasons:

1. The result as rows containing metadata (the one that Doug seems to prefer) requires a definition of the schema of these meta tables. Would likely require long discussions.
2. As Ray pointed out, an empty VOTable can be converted into VOResourse and vice-versa.
3. As Alberto Micol pointed out, tools for the ingestion of the metadata from an empty VOTable already exists -- no need for additional tools there.
4. From the point of view of application developers who already are parsing the VOTable metadata, those I've heard of are satisfied with the empty VOTable which does not require further code to decrypt the meta-schema.

Do you think we should install a web page with on-line voting capabilities ? That could help to measure the grounds on which we are taking our decisions.

--francois

Francois Ochsenbein       ------       Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg
   11, rue de l'Universite F-67000 STRASBOURG       Phone: +33-(0)390 24 24 29
Email: francois-at-astro.u-strasbg.fr   (France)         Fax: +33-(0)390 24 24 32


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