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Agenda for meetings in Glasgow


       DRAFT AGENDAS FOR THE COMCIFS MEETINGS IN GLASGOW
                                
      Please pass on comments or suggestions to the chair
                      idbrown@mcmaster.ca
                                
                      COMCIFS OPEN MEETING
                         5 August 1999
                         Held in Gala 
                                
            DATA COMMUNICATIONS IN THE 21st CENTURY

     The purpose of the open meeting is to provide those
attending (including the members and observers of Comcifs) with a
picture of the current status of the CIF project and the ideas of
those active in the project of how they see it developing.  It
will provide a general overview of the project for visitors as
well as background for members prior to the closed meeting. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1300 The CIF project and the role of Comcifs      Brown     

1310 Dictionaries - Recent changes and current developments 
     Core and dictionaries in preparation       Brown
     mmCIF                                      Berman
     imgCIF/CBF                                 Bernstein

1330 The problem of Intellectual Property Rights  McMahon

1345 What software is available and what should be available?
                          Bernstein, Bourn, Edgington, Westbrook

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
1415 Use of CIF in scientific publication        McMahon

1430 Cif and the web            Murray-Rust (or Westbrook)

1445 Where are the Dictionary Definition Languages going?   
                                                 Hall
                                                 Westbrook  
          
1510 Break     

1530 Whither CIF?                                 
               Panel discussion with the speakers

1700 End of session

              **************************************

                      COMCIFS CLOSED MEETING
                        9 August 1999
                          1300-1500
                        Held in Etive

1. Merging dictionaries                   McMahon, Bernstein
     As new dictionaries come on line this function is becoming
     more urgent.
     
2. Intellectual property rights                      McMahon
    Where do we stand at the moment?
    
3. Cif Browser-editor
    There is a growing need for such an application to avoid
    discouraging the users.  Where do we stand in the
    development of such browsers?  What action should we be
    taking?
    
4. Encoding and Dissemination                         Berman

5. Coordinating CIF developments with non-crystallographic data
projects (items 3 and 7b are related)                 Berman
    Several non-crystallographic databases are now being
    developed using DDL2 to ensure that they are compatible with
    mmCIFs.  How can we ensure compatibility between the Star
    files and dictionaries.
    
6. Should CIF be registered with ISO?  
     This would strengthen our claim to the standard.  Should we
     pursue this route?
     
7. The next generation of CIF.

     a. Relationship to other file structures (XML, ASM.1)
          Similar file structures are now being widely adopted. 
          What should our relationship be with these other
          standards?  Do we need to build in some compatibility
          into CIF?
          
     b. The future of DDL
          i. How many versions do we need to maintain?
             Should we move towards a single DDL?  Can we define
             a DDL3 that is compatible with DDL1 and DDL2?
          ii. Should the IUCr assume ownership of the DDL's we   
              use?  (See items 5)
          iii. Additional functionality
                 1. Type constructs
                 2. Multidimensional arrays
                 3. Nested loops
                 4. Save frames
                 5. Methods



*****************************************************
Dr.I.David Brown,  Professor Emeritus
Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, 
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Tel: 1-(905)-525-9140 ext 24710
Fax: 1-(905)-521-2773
idbrown@mcmaster.ca
*****************************************************