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[ddlm-group] A modest addition to the DDLm spec

The following issue came up during the encodings group discussion, but
is more properly a DDLm issue.  In order to simplify algorithmic
conversion of existing CIF1 quoted strings to valid CIF2 strings,
I propose the addition of the python string concatenation operator, "+",
in CIF2 documents.  The main value of this addition is to permit a
simple algorithmic conversion of CIF1 strings with embedded quote
marks to CIF2 strings that end on the first occurrence of the initial
quote.  While the use of text fields will suffice in many cases,
for regular expressions it is clearer and simpler to just break the
string, insert the terminal quote mark, insert a "+" and then restart
the string with a different quote mark.

Formally the proposal is:

When a quoted string is given as a data value in a CIF2 document,
it may be presented as multiple quoted strings concatenated by the
"+" operator.  For example

the CIF1 construct from the mmCIF dictionary

_item_type_list.construct

'[][ \t_(),.;:"&<>/\{}'`~!@#$%?+=*A-Za-z0-9|^-]*'

could be presented as

   _item_type_list.construct

'[][ \t_(),.;:"&<>/\{}'+"'`~!@#$%?+=*A-Za-z0-9|^-]*"

or

   _item_type_list.construct

'[][ \t_(),.;:"&<>/\{}' + "'`~!@#$%?+=*A-Za-z0-9|^-]*"


or

   _item_type_list.construct

'[][ \t_(),.;:"&<>/\{}'
+ "'`~!@#$%?+=*A-Za-z0-9|^-]*"


in CIF2


which also can be very useful in dealing with very long regular expressions
and other very long strings that are intended to be handled as a
single line

rather than having to use a text field.

Comments appreciated.

Regards,
   Herbert

-- 
=====================================================
  Herbert J. Bernstein, Professor of Computer Science
    Dowling College, Kramer Science Center, KSC 121
         Idle Hour Blvd, Oakdale, NY, 11769

                  +1-631-244-3035
                  yaya@dowling.edu
=====================================================
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