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RE: ANN: a portable data component -- length

• From: "Toby Considine" <Toby.Considine@gmail.com>
• To: <liam@w3.org>,"'John Cowan'" <cowan@m...>
• Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 22:23:05 -0700

Interesting question, and one that goes to the heart of some of my current
obsessions...

Is there a standard XSD of SI units for inclusion somewhere on the web

And

Is there a standard XSD of SI scale ( peta / tera / giga / mega/ ...) for
inclusion anywhere on the web?


tc



"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not
become a monster, and if you stare long into an abyss, the abyss also stares
into you."   - Fredrich Nietzche

Toby Considine
TC9, Inc
TC Chair: oBIX & WS-Calendar
TC Editor: EMIX, EnergyInterop
U.S. National Inst. of Standards and Tech. Smart Grid Architecture Committee

  
Email: Toby.Considine@gmail.com
Phone: (919)619-2104
http://www.tcnine.com/
blog: www.NewDaedalus.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Liam R E Quin [mailto:liam@w3.org] 
Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2011 9:41 PM
To: John Cowan
Cc: Costello, Roger L.; xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: Re:  ANN: a portable data component -- length

On Sat, 2011-04-09 at 15:55 -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> Liam R E Quin scripsit:
> 
> > (I'd use metric/SI units in a program as they're easier to deal 
> > with, and mixed-based ambiguity like 3 feet 7 inches doesn't occur)
> 
> If you want to represent measurements, as distinct from counts, you 
> need to provide the measurement in the units actually measured.

+1 if they are actually being measured; one also has to give tolerance.

On Pete Cordell's point, the name of the element - I used <measurement>
rather than <distance> for no good or bad reason - one can't know a priori
whether the fact it's a measurement is more or less important than the fact
it's a linear measurement through space, a distance. One is not
intrinsically more "semantic" than the other.  But we can know that there's
a common danger in using element names for field names that come from some
non-XML source, as you might end up with non-XML chracters to deal with, or
markup in the field name -- e.g. mathematical notation, or annotations
(Japanese ruby comes to mind).

Someone else said that Normal Form is no gold standard - it isn't, but the
principle of not duplicating data still holds.  If Costelloitis takes hold,
you should at least mark which of two values is primary and which was
derived.

<jug id="jug">
  <capacity units="imperial_UK">4 gallons</capacity>
  <capacity units="US" derivedfrom="imperial_UK">4.5 gallons</capacity>
  <size>little</size>
  <colour>brown</colour>
</jug>


--
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/ Pictures
from old books: http://www.fromoldbooks.org/



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• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: ANN: a portable data component -- length
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>

• References:
  • ANN: a portable data component -- length
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
  • Re: ANN: a portable data component -- length
    • From: Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>
  • Re: ANN: a portable data component -- length
    • From: John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>
  • Re: ANN: a portable data component -- length
    • From: Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>