[CF-metadata] Usage of the 'Conventions' attribute (Nan Galbraith)

From: Schultz, Martin <m.schultz>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:54:19 +0000

Dear all,

    I fully agree with Jonathan's view that it would not be a good idea to call this new thing "Convention". On the other hand, I don't really like the term "flag_convention_name" either, because it doesn't tell me anything. If I understand correctly, then your desire is different from defining a pointer to controlled vocabulary. Should it be a similar idea, then I suggest we should try to follow the ideas and namings of ISO19115 (without being able to tell you right away what the appropriate term would be). If it's cf specific and indeed refers to the version of a cf document (or annex or whatever), shouldn't the attribute then have a name that starts with "cf_"? E.g. cf_attribute_convention ?

Cheers,

Martin


Message: 4
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:23:33 +1100
From: Jonathan Gregory <j.m.gregory at reading.ac.uk>
To: cf-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
Subject: [CF-metadata] Usage of the 'Conventions' attribute
Message-ID: <20130124012333.GC22156 at met.reading.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear Roy

I understand the need but I tend to think this would not be an appropriate
use of the Conventions attribute, which is a general netCDF attribute, not
specific to CF, and refers to files. I do appreciate the logical similarity
but I would have thought it better to define something more specific in CF
for this purpose.

If this is a need which several users have and is required for exchange of
data, then it is reasonable to propose to add something to CF. Since it's
an extra piece of information referring to flags, maybe an attribute such as
flag_convention_name would work? We could make it a requirement that this
attribute was allowed only if the variable had flag_meanings as well, to
prevent its being used as a substitute for spelling out what the flags mean
(as is necessary for the file to be self-describing).

Best wishes

Jonathan



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Received on Thu Jan 24 2013 - 11:54:19 GMT