[eml-dev] [Fwd: RE: Report from Metacat Harvester: Thu Nov 10 10:27:27 MST 2005]

[Matt Jones]

As with Peter, I don't think there was an explicit rationale for using 
decimal.  And I also don't think people realized this would rule out the 
use of scientific notation.  This probably should be changed.  We also 
migh consider reviewing the data types of other fields to be sure the 
problem doesn't exist in other places as well.

Matt

Wade Sheldon wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I have a question: what was the rationale for setting the xml-schema datatype for ../attribute/measurementScale/ratio/numericDomain/bounds in EML as xs:decimal instead of xs:float? I recently encountered validation problems when creating metadata for data tables from radioisotope studies that included very large maximum bounds for some attributes (in the 10^6-10^7 range), and it turned out that display of these bounds in scientific notation was the problem.
> 
> I altered my code to force bounds to be displayed in decimal notation as a work-around, but this schema rule seems unnecessarily strict to me. Besides, ruling out scientific notation for numeric fields can also require metadata creators to include unrealistic numbers of significant digits.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Wade Sheldon
> 
> 
> ____________________________________
> 
> Wade M. Sheldon
> GCE-LTER Information Manager/SIMO Database Administrator
> School of Marine Programs
> University of Georgia
> Athens, GA 30602-3636
> Email: sheldon at uga.edu
> WWW: http://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/lter/bios/wsheldon.htm
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Eml-dev mailing list
> Eml-dev at ecoinformatics.org
> http://mercury.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/mailman/listinfo/eml-dev
> 

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matt Jones
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                         Ph: 907-789-0496
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara     http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~