[CF-metadata] Regions, Gazetteer, etc

From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:48:14 +0000

Dear John

> Could you say a bit more about this requirement? In particular, "plain text with nothing but the list in it" and "machine-readable" aren't entirely contradictory, but may preclude more complex representations that are appropriate, no? (I'm not an expert in gazetteer representation, but being able to represent e.g., hierarchies of metadata gets tricky, I'm guessing. Is something like XML or RDF close enough to plain text to meet this goal/requirement?

The main problem I was getting at is that a discursive HTML document is
difficult for a program to use! A table in XML, for instance, would be OK,
I agree. If it were primarily in XML, it would be helpful to provide a more
human-readable version as well (e.g. the discursive HTML form). A plain-text
file has the advantage of being both human- and machine-readable, doesn't it.

Best wishes

Jonathan
Received on Thu Jan 26 2012 - 03:48:14 GMT