> I'd like to propose changing the rules. That's something the conventions committee can agree, I believe. I would suggest the simplest possibility, if we wish to retain provisional status, is to specify a time. We could say that, after one year from acceptance or when the next version of the conventions document is published, whichever is later, a change becomes permanent. What do you think?
The more I consider the concept of "provisional status" the more it concerns me. What does it actually mean for a netCDF file to use a particular "Conventions" attribute value? How can one tell what is still in provisional status? What version should data writers be using? I've checked back through 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6 and they all still contain sections marked as provisional. Using the analogy to software versions that has been raised elsewhere, the CF convention versions are essentially pre-release versions, e.g. 1.6-beta, and are not suitable for production use.
I would argue that the simplest possibility is to drop the "provisional status" concept. Identifying and resolving problems should happen during the discussion of the modification and its subsequent application to the conventions document.
If a further flaw, ambiguity, etc. is subsequently discovered prior to the publication of the next version of the conventions then it can easily be resolved at that time.
If a problem is discovered after the publication of the next version then a correction must be applied and published in a *new* version. That version could be a "bug fix" version (e.g. 1.6.1) or it could just wait for the next normal release, e.g. 1.7. It would help to agree that process in advance but I have no strong opinion either way.
Richard Hattersley
Expert Software Developer
Met Office FitzRoy Road Exeter Devon EX1 3PB United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1392 885702
Email: richard.hattersley at metoffice.gov.uk Web: www.metoffice.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: CF-metadata [mailto:cf-metadata-bounces at cgd.ucar.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Gregory
Sent: 13 March 2014 17:24
To: cf-metadata at cgd.ucar.edu
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] Editing/publishing workflow
Dear Jeff
> Present CF Conventions policies require that all changes be
> provisional, and marked as such in the document, until determined to
> be permanent at a later time (this determination has never been made).
> That's the meaning of all the pink and yellow highlighting in the
> document at cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov.
Yes, this is a issue. As Richard said, it doesn't matter how it is marked. The problem is that all changes, however old, are still marked as provisional, as you said. This is (a) a bit silly and (b) a nuisance as regards legibility of the doc. The aim of provisional status was to allow time for people to try out the change, in case a logical flaw was discovered which hadn't been fore- seen at the time of the proposal. This was because of the concern that many or most proposals concern data which has not yet been written, so the metadata being proposed can't have been thoroughly tested. It was supposed that some tests, using specified software, would be used to demonstrate the new feature was "working", but no-one had time to work out the details for this.
I'd like to propose changing the rules. That's something the conventions committee can agree, I believe. I would suggest the simplest possibility, if we wish to retain provisional status, is to specify a time. We could say that, after one year from acceptance or when the next version of the conventions document is published, whichever is later, a change becomes permanent. What do you think?
Cheers
Jonathan
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Received on Tue Mar 18 2014 - 03:05:36 GMT
