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At 03:00 24/07/2006, David Lyon wrote: >On Sun, 2006-07-23 at 23:48 +0100, peter murray-rust wrote: > > > > > Is there anything essentially different between business data and > > genomic data? They both need to be created, stored, transmitted, > > processed and perhaps repurposed. > >I would not know. Business data is usually strongly typed these days >into strings, numbers, booleans, currency values and so forth. I don't >know if those are pressing issues for genomic data. CML has been developed in exactly this way (apart from the currency values). It is a collection of what might be called strongly-typed microformats (though components is a better word for CML). It supports generic numeric and scientific computing as well as chemistry. > > At a general level they both > > require a formal specification (Schema), maybe an ontology, > > domain-specific tools for precessing them. > >Often Business data doesn't need a formal specification or schema. > >This requirement has really held back xml or at least kept it in the >domain of tightly coupled systems. We need to go loose-coupling in >future, not insist that a programmer has sat down beforehand and work >out the schema for every single document. I agree completely. I now really only use the Schema to define the components, not how they are put together. >Let me give you a real world example situation. > >Receptionist wants to type a shopping list. Must get schema created by >IT. Loaded on a web server. Schema loaded on the web server. Validated. >It is so complicated and requires so many resources that it just doesn't >happen. > >An easier way is to just embed all the type information and have no >schema, no web server, nothing else. This can be typed: > > <Shopping List> > Customer_Name&="Mr Fred Parker" > PON#=5645 > Deliver_Asap?=True > <Product Item> PLU&="A256" Qty#=5 Rate$=4.56</> > </Shopping List> Somewhere, I assume, you have to encode the fact that Rate is in dollars of some sort. Otherwise you cannot reliably convert it. Therefore you have to have at least a partial schema or ontology CML does this by having an extensible dictionary system and an extensible system of units (which does not but could include currency). P. Peter Murray-Rust Unilever Centre for Molecular Sciences Informatics University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK +44-1223-763069
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