[Tcs-lc] Human Readable - the thread formally known as 'Name of NomenCode'

[Roger Hyam]

Yes I agree that it should be easy to implement but there also needs to 
be a gradient of implementations. It should be easy to do simple things 
but it should be possible to do more complex things with a bit more effort.

I think we are resigned to having some level of normalization in the 
schema but I imagine this will rarely be used in a single document 
instance. I am thinking that if we could have 'fancy pointers' of some 
kind then the work for this reduces greatly. If the pointer in the 
schema can contain a string summary of the publication, for example, as 
well as a reference to that publication then in a great many 
implementations the details of the publication can simply be retrieved 
with a second call if they are required.

Roger


Sally Hinchcliffe wrote:

>Roger wrote:
>  
>
>>I am all for readability and it is something I am just sitting down 
>>    
>>
>to 
>  
>
>>look at in the TCS today. This is partially inspired by trying to 
>>    
>>
>put 
>  
>
>>together some instance documents over the weekend. This matter does 
>>    
>>
>not 
>  
>
>>only include field names but also general structure.
>>
>>How important do people consider it is to be able to read/hand 
>>    
>>
>craft TCS 
>  
>
>>instances - at least simple one?
>>    
>>
>
>
>I vote for readable, but not necessarily hand-writable. Another thing 
>to look out for is making sure it's easy for programs to generate the 
>stuff
>
>readability enhances acceptance - if the instance documents look 
>readable then people are more likely to use them, and they will feel 
>confident that they will be able to troubleshoot any problems.
>
>For writability, the main impact is on the wrappers producing the 
>XML. When we did this in IPNI, producing the data via templates, the 
>problem was keeping track of references within the document - for 
>instance references to publications. The way a website like IPNI 
>serves data up is as a stream of names with a header at the top and a 
>footer at the bottom. It's easiest if each name and its associated 
>data can be totally self contained with no need to keep track of a 
>second set of data that's being referred to internally within the 
>document. It's not impossible (we did handle references to 
>publications in the TCS data we served) but the more internal 
>references there are to keep track of the harder it is. Unfortunately 
>recent discussion seems to be sending us down the internal reference 
>root more and more.
>So from a generator's point of view this is easy (and I think also 
>more human readable):
>
>start stuff - headers etc.
> - taxonname 1
>  - interesting facts about taxonname 1
>  - publication information about taxonname 1
>  - other names related to taxonname 1
>- taxonname 2
> - interesting facts about taxonname 2
> - publication information about taxonname 2
> - other names related to taxonname 2
>end stuff
>
>whereas this is hard (but not impossible):
>
>start stuff
> - taxonname 1
>   - interesting facts about taxonname 1
>   - taxonname 1 published in reference 1
>   - taxonname 1 related to taxonname 3
>- taxonname 2 
>   - interesting facts about taxonname 2
>   - taxonname 2 published in reference 2
>   - taxonname 2 related to taxonname 4
> - taxonname 3
>   - interesting facts about taxonname 3
>   - taxonname 3 published in reference 3
>- taxonname 4
>   - interesting facts about taxonname 4
>   - taxonname 4 published in reference 4
>- reference 1
>  - details for reference 1
>- reference 2
>  - details for reference 2
>- reference 3
>  - details for reference 3
>- reference 4
>  - details for reference 4
>end stuff
>
>
>Of course it may be we're not generating the data in the most 
>efficient way ...
>
>ps my vote would be for NomenclaturalCode. Does exactly what it says 
>on the tin...
>Sally
>
>*** Sally Hinchcliffe
>*** Computer section, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
>*** tel: +44 (0)20 8332 5708
>*** S.Hinchcliffe at rbgkew.org.uk
>
>_______________________________________________
>Tcs-lc mailing list
>Tcs-lc at ecoinformatics.org
>http://mercury.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/mailman/listinfo/tcs-lc
>
>  
>

-- 

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 Roger Hyam
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