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Re: Provisional approval for revisions of existing dictionaries

  • To: Multiple recipients of list <comcifs-l@iucr.org>
  • Subject: Re: Provisional approval for revisions of existing dictionaries
  • From: Brian McMahon <bm@iucr.org>
  • Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:49:18 +0100 (BST)
> 	I was wondering if we should review our procedures now that we
> have the DMGs operating.  It doesn't now seem so necessary that
> revisions to the existing dictionaries should be brought to Comcifs for
> provisional approval.

I agree. I'm currently working through a number of revisions to the Core
dictionary following discussions within the coreDMG list. I expect to
request approval for a consistent revised version of the dictionary 
from the DMG in the near future, and I would hope that final approval from
COMCIFS would then be a formality.

Likewise, the mmCIF DMG has posted details of proposed extensions on the
public mmciflist, and will probably soon be in a position to present for
approval a revised dictionary that has had community review as well as
editorial review from the group's own editorial board.

> 	1. Comcifs load will be lightened.  I suspect that most
> dictionaries get a rather cursory read from Comcifs members at the
> provisional approval stage (and maybe also at the final approval stage). 

I suggest that the Chair (or secretary) of the DMG submits to the COMCIFS
list (comcifs-l@iucr.org) a request for approval, together with a verbal
summary of any major changes of substance, a list of new data names, and the
change history of the dictionary file since its last formally accepted
version.

A copy of the revised dictionary should be sent to the COMCIFS secretary
(bm@iucr.org) who will make it available by ftp for any interested COMCIFS
members to download; but the complete dictionary would not normally be
circulated to the entire list.

> 	It might be worth considering including all members of DMGs as
> auditors of the Comcifs discussions.  In this case they would become more
> aware of Comcifs procedures and the philosophical issues that come before
> Comcifs and how they are resolved.

No - subscription to comcifs-l should be voluntary for DMG members (but
should be freely granted if sought). However, DMG Chairs should ensure that
all their members are aware of the public comcifs-l archive, and should
encourage occasional review of that archive.

Regards
Brian