Machine Readable Enumerations

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Machine Readable Enumerations

• Graham Shanks

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Requirement 1

• Both the word document and at least one machine
  readable format are required.
• Rationale
• Many people have requested a machine readable
  format
• XML
• Excel/CSV
• Database (Access/SQL/Other)
• A number of people still want the word document

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Requirement 2

• There must be tools to convert between the word
  document and the machine readable format
• Rationale
• Otherwise mistakes will occur OR one of the
  formats will not be maintained
• I believe that this caused the only previous
  freely distributed database (the one that is, or
  was, available from the SISO archives) to fall
  behind and become moribund.
• Note that there is nothing in this requirement
  that says which way the conversion should go

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Requirement 3

• The tools should be freely available (or at least
  industry standard) with no restrictive licensing
  conditions
• Rationale
• Cost
• Ease of use
• Note any tools/scripts produced should be open
  source

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Acceptable tools (examples)

• Word and Excel
• Scripting
• Perl
• Python
• Javascript
• XSLT
• Databases
• MySQL
• Access (?)

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Requirement 4

• Any tools should run on MS-Windows (2000 and XP)
• Rationale
• Thats what I use
• Linux may be acceptable
• Mac is not

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Requirement 5

• The tools should not have a steep learning curve
  or require expert level knowledge to use
• Rationale
• EBV maintainers are not always experts
• Time is limited

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What will stay the same

• Change Requests still submitted to enumerations
  coordinator
• CR format may change
• Public change block reviews

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Decisions made/required
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The Vision
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What formats should be supported?

• XML
• Word or RTF
• PDF (word)
• HTML
• Databases which format
• Suggested Access, MySQL
• SQL export (?)
• Excel spreadsheet
• CSV file
• Others

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What formats should be supported?

• XML (with schema)
• Word or RTF
• PDF (word)
• HTML
• Databases which format
• Suggested Access, MySQL
• SQL export (?)
• Excel spreadsheet use CSV
• CSV file
• Others if you provide support

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What format is the master?

• Word -gt XML -gt Database
• Database -gt XML -gt Word
• Word lt- XML -gt Database

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What format is the master?

• Word -gt XML -gt Database
• Database -gt XML -gt Word
• Word lt- XML -gt Database

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What should be machine readable?

• All data
• Entity types only

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What should be machine readable?

• All data
• Entity types only

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Others?

• Incremental approach?
• Some people already have parsing scripts
• The format of the word document is not sacrosanct
• Automatic Build
• Command line driven
• Automatic entry would be nice

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Consequences of using XML (so far)

• Character limitations (e.g. may not be able to
  use )
• Formatting limitations (e.g. C2 not C2)

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Next Steps
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Next Steps

• Reach consensus on
• Requirements
• Goals
• Decisions made
• Here
• On the reflector

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Form the tiger team

• Volunteers required
• Tool development
• Testing/reviewing
• Checking
• Documentation
• Sponsors!
• Donate time
• Donate money

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Volunteers so far (TBC)

• Bruce Clay
• Dave Hamilton
• Marc Briere
• Don Brutzman

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Where are we?
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XML format in development

• Example XML
• Tentative design decisions
• Separate country code section
• Hierarchy
• Kind -gt Domain -gt Category -gt Country
• Open Questions
• How do we handle deleted entries?
• How do we ensure that country codes are
  consistant?
• How do we cope with radio nomenclature version?
• Short names for display?

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Questions?
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Current enumerations

• Format (and document ) changed
• Now an official SISO reference document
• Review schedule to be published
• Quarterly updates
• Process to be published
• Will take CRs to support P1278.1-200X
• DG Editor will submit enumerations from PCRs
  automatically