Announcement of Potential New Project : EXPRESS and Binary Data Representation

[David Price]

Hello Lothar,

You raise several good points:

The proposal several years ago was to *add* binary representation to Part
21. At the time I was leading the meetings and as Part 21 has "clear text"
in the title, a binary representation was seen as out-of-scope. So, your
memory of my views is almost correct, I was against adding binary support to
Part 21 itself. I cannot remember who was for or against a binary
representation as a concept.

WG11 is an enabler for projects that member countries want to start. To
begin a new project, 5 member countries must agree and the project must show
resources interested in completing the work. So, it's up the member
countries to set priorities, not a WG. If 5 countries won't support a binary
representation, then it will not happen in SC4. If it does happen, your
input is most welcome. I hope you can attend the meeting in March and
discuss your work.

EXPRESS 2 and other P2x standards is a separate question. To that end,
perhaps starting another thread on the exploder would be a good idea if you
want to discuss that particular topic. I do know others are interested as
well. In particular, I am interested in Part 25 support for EXPRESS 2.

Cheers,
David

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lothar Klein [mailto:lothar.klein at lksoft.com]
> Sent: 07 February 2004 17:27
> To: David Price
> Cc: Wg11 Exploder; Step-Imp; Xmlsc4; EMPILOT-L at ATICORP.ORG
> Subject: Re: Announcement of Potential New Project : EXPRESS and Binary
> Data Representation
> 
> David,
> 
> The topic to standardise a binary representation of EXPRESS defined
> data was already discussed in WG11 years ago. At this time a majority
> of WG11 was frown on such an idea and when I remember correctly you
> was part of this group!
> Consequently people had to develop and implement their own thing.
> 
> I should also remind you on my paper
>   ISO TC184/SC4/WG11/N144 "EXPRESS/SQL white paper" 2001-02-15
> intended as a start to standardise a generic way for storing Express
> defined data in a relational database. This idea was also not accepted
> by WG11 at that time.
> 
> Meanwhile we have a new Express and WG11 has already for long several work
> items on its agenda to update all the implementation methods
> (and also E_X) for the new Express. This should be the priority for WG11.
> 
> Going back to the binary data representation.
> LKSoft has developed its own thing. The main motivation was to have a
> backup mechanism for an SDAI database. Consequently we call it the
> SDAI file format. The SDAI file format supports all features of SDAI
> and covers detailed meta information on all the datatypes so that it
> is possible to create part21 and part28 files out of it without
> knowing further details on the underlying EXPRESS schema.
> The SDAI format is speed optimised for reading data into RAM. In
> addition it is using compression, is able to include non-STEP data
> (so to say a big binary data type), and has a couple of more features.
> 
> For now we keep the SDAI file format as a proprietary part of our
> JSDAI toolkit. But this may change if SC4/WG11 is all of a sudden
> going to standardise something in this area.
> 
> Lothar
> 
> --
> // Lothar Klein, LKSoftWare GmbH
> // Steinweg 1, 36093 Kuenzell, Germany
> // +49 661 933933-0, Fax: -2
> // mailto:lothar.klein at lksoft.com   http://www.lksoft.com
> 
> Saturday, February 7, 2004, 2:13:14 PM, you wrote:
> > Meeting Name: EXPRESS and
> > Binary Data Representation
> 
> > Start Date: 2004-03-02
> > Tuesday
> 
> > Time(s): 1:00pm
> >  - 3:00pm 3:30pm - 5:00pm
> 
> >
> 
> > Agenda
> 
> >
> 
> > 1) Discuss initiation of PWI
> > or NWI
> 
> > 2) Initiation of
> > Requirements Document
> 
> > 3) Initiation of Related
> > Activities/Standards/Tools Document
> 
> > 4) Plan next actions
> 
> >
> 
> > The idea is to standardize or use an existing binary
> > representation of data for EXPRESS users whose applications require
> large
> > volumes of data such as the analysis APs. An initial meeting was held at
> the Poitiers
> > ISO.
> 
> >
> 
> > Note that there are already binary representations of data
> > and that W3C is having a related discussion with respect to a binary
> > representation for XML documents. All these activities are relevant. The
> expectation
> > is that a PWI or NWI will result but that it may not be necessary to
> invent a
> > representation ourselves. We may simply standardize the use of something
> that
> > already exists or is under development.
> 
> >
> 
> > Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or
> > comments,
> 
> > Cheers,
> 
> > David
> 
> >
> 
> > Phone +44 207 704 0499
> 
> > Mobile +44 7788 561308
> 
> > 8 Highbury Place, Flat 5
> 
> > London, UK
> 
> > N5 1QZ
> 
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>