Re: [ddlm-group] Finalizing DDLm

This doesn’t actually make things clearer or easier James. I will repeat it again.

Strict adherence to the formal specification of DDLm REQUIRES List categories to be presented as looped data, even if there is only one row.

If the IUCr wishes to universally adopt the case where instances of List categories that contain only one row may be presented as a Set category then it can do so as an accepted extension. This of course requires every application writer to necessarily read the dictionary to establish if the data is really a Set category or possibly a List category. Once the IUCr adopts this extension to DDLm within its implementation, I would assume every application writer would be required to adhere to it.

On 14/04/10 3:29 PM, "James Hester" <jamesrhester@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear all,

Both John and Herb have come out in favour of allowing one-row loops to be unrolled.  Nick and I are both sceptical about the value of this idea.  We have a few options:

1.  Disallow loop unrolling altogether (as in DDL1).
2.  Allow loop unrolling for all DDLm dictionaries
3.  Add a category-scope DDLm attribute stating that one-row loops in this category and child categories may be unrolled.  If it appears in the 'Head' category of the dictionary, it would mean that all categories in the dictionary could be unrolled.

We have not discussed option 3: it basically means deferring the decision on loop unrolling to the dictionary writers.  It also means that programmers of generic CIF software will need to be prepared for either behaviour, so in that sense it is slightly more burdensome than option 2.

Unless the silent majority would like to contribute further thoughts on this matter, I suggest that we vote and move on.  I discern that the voting so far would be:

Option 1: James, Nick
Option 2: John, Herb
Option 3: ?

(Some comments on John's post are inserted below).

James.

cheers

Nick

--------------------------------
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