Re: Draft 2019 report for IUCr exec

Dear James,

  Here is Frances' and my suggested revised version.

  Regards,

    Herbert

  COMCIFS report 2019
  ===================
 
  COMCIFS is responsible for maintaining and developing the suite of
  standards known as the Crystallographic Information Framework (CIF) on
  behalf of the IUCr. The committee consists of five voting members and
  a broad collection of advisers and observers. The current voting
  members are James Hester (Chair), John Bollinger (Co-Secretary),
  Brian McMahon (Co-Secretary), Herbert Bernstein, and John Westbrook.
 
  New dictionaries
 
  No new dictionaries were approved this year.
 
  Legacy dictionaries
 
  No further legacy dictionaries were transferred to DDLm this year.
  The method for doing this has been finalised for the modulated
  structure and electron density dictionaries.
 
  International Tables Volume G
 
  COMCIFS members are closely involved with the preparation of the
  second edition of International Tables Volume G ("Production and
  exchange of crystallographic data").  Progress has been slow due to
  clarification of the new foundational standards being a prerequisite
  to production of the Volume. Further information is available in the
  report of the Commission for International Tables.
 
  Macromolecular standards
 
  The wwPDB is responsible for a large and rapidly expanding collection
  of CIF definitions that encompass concepts and techniques used in the
  macromolecular community.  In 2019 submission of entries in mmCIF
  format became mandatory as one of the final steps in moving away from
  the 1970s era PDB format.
 
  Much raw macromolecular diffraction data is in the form of imgCIF-based
  CBF files or NeXus NXmx application definition-based HDF5 files. In the
  culmination of an effort that began in 1995, a large portion of the MX
  synchrotron and XFEL community agreed in 2019 on a new "Gold Standard"
  of metadata to be provided in either imgCIF or NXmx diffraction images
  to permit processing of MX data at a wide range of facilities in a wide
  range of software packages.
 
  Interactions with other groups
 
  Since 2012, Herbert Bernstein has represented COMCIFS on the NeXus
  international advisory committee (NIAC). Since then NIAC has defined the
  NXmx application definition for macromolecular diffraction images, which
  is the default format for Dectris Eiger detector images. As noted above,
  in 2019 community agreement  was reached on a new "Gold Standard" for the
  metadata. That agreement has been reported in a paper submitted to IUCrJ
  and is planned to be discussed in a day-0 workshop at the IUCr congress
  in Prague.  It has been informally discussed with NIAC at a Code Camp at
  Argonne National Lab and will be formally submitted for joint adoption
  by COMCIFS and NIAC.  It will be incorporated in the imgCIF discussion
  in the second edition of International Tables Volume G.
 
  COMCIFS is also closely involved with the IUCr Committee on Data
  (CommDat).
 
  Events
 
  This year's AIC International Crystallography School in Naples ("CIFiesta")
  had a strong focus on Crystallographic Information and included several
  hours of lectures on the CIF system and dictionaries from CIF experts.
 
  Looking forward
 
  As flagged in previous years, an ever-shrinking group of people is
  drawn upon to support CIF maintenance and development. This situation
  is not sustainable, particularly as the first generation of CIF
  experts move into retirement. This situation did not improve in 2019.
  --