EML 2.0 release & Documentation Review

[David Blankman]

After beginning the process of reviewing the eml documentation both
Scott and I are clear that there is more work that needs to be done.
Scott says, "Even if both of us spent full time on this, and I can't,
there is no way that we can finish this by Friday."  (I will be devoting
close to full time on this for the next few days. Scott will do what he
can.) To compound the problem the schemas are continuing to change even
now.

 

There is a lot of either incorrect or out of date documentation even in
the more straightforward schemas. The ones that have been adapted from
FGDC are by everyone's comments sparse and opaque. 

 

There are three separate but related issues that need to be addressed:

1.	What approach should be taken with the FGDC derived
documentation?
2.	Should we make a conceptual separation between the documentation
that is embedded in the schemas and user documentation? If we did this
then the documentation review could be speeded up since all we would
have to do is make sure that it is accurate rather than easy to
understand. (The people who have done the development already understand
what things mean and have difficulty judging whether something is or is
not understandable. Even I am may be too close).
3.	When should the Release Candidate be posted?
It seems to me that we have two options: 

a.        post the release candidate with the disclaimer that the
documentation is not complete. 

b.       delay the release until the documentation is complete.

 

Since this is being referred to as a release candidate, I have no
problem with posting the release candidate before the documentation is
complete. Scott seems to be leaning closer to wanting to delay the
release.

 

Both of us felt that it was important to bring this issue to everyone's
attention.

 

david

 

 

David Blankman

Database Integration Developer

LTER Network Office

801 University, SE #104

Albuquerque, NM 87106

(505) 272-7346 (505) 272-7080 (fax)

 

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