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Re: Agenda for closed COMCIFS meeting

These all sound like interesting topics, in which fact a problems lies:
we could easily spend all our time on presentation of various facts
and positions and have no time for discussion and resolution on
any of them.  Therefore, I would suggest a prioritization of the
agenda and an agreement that we will make a serious effort at
coming to an agreed position on at least the highest one or two
items, perhaps at expense of discussion of some of the other items
at this time.  I for one would give the highest priority to
items 1 and 2, since a clear position on those two points
would greatly help in the discussions of mmCIF, XML, PDBML,
CML, dREL and other topics, both in Florence and in subsequent
email discussions.

Regards,
   Herbert



At 2:17 PM -0400 8/11/05, David Brown wrote:
>Please note that closed meetings of COMCIFS will be held at the IUCr 
>Congress in Florence at the following times:
>
>Tuesday August 25 1500-1700 in Beato Angelico Hall
>Monday August 29 1230-1445 in Brunelleschi Hall
>
>(The open COMCIFS meeting will be held on Friday August 26 in 
>Leonardo Hall - see the program book for details.)
>
>Although the COMCIFS closed meetings are designed for members of 
>COMCIFS to discuss items on the agenda below, I would like to invite 
>anyone to attend who feels they have something to contribute to the 
>discussion of these items.
>
>David Brown
>Chair of COMCIFS
>
>========================================================
>Agenda for the closed COMCIFS meetings in Florence
>
>1. Expansion of the mandate of COMCIFS.
>--------------------------------------------
>1a. Report of the chair on his meeting with the IUCr Executive Committee.
>    COMCIFS mandate is currently restricted to the maintenance of the 
>CIF standard.  I will seek the Executive Committee's approval to 
>expand that mandate to include alternative formalisms or protocols 
>for the exchange of standard crystallographic data.
>
>1b. Formal adoption of DDL1 by COMCIFS.
>    Maintenance of the dictionary definition languages (DDLs) does 
>not currently fall within our mandate, but no other organization 
>appears to have assumed the authority to approve changes to the 
>DDLs.  Expansion of our mandate would allow us to take these 
>dictionaries under our wing.  While there is no intention of making 
>major changes to any of the existing DDLs, recent attempts to use 
>DDL1 in the originally-envisaged computer-driven mode have brought 
>to light errors that should be corrected.  Formal approval of these 
>minor changes will allow us to provide software that makes effective 
>use of DDL1 in accessing the large archive of DDL1 based CIFs as 
>well as providing COMCIFS with valuable experience in developing 
>more advanced versions of DDL.
>
>2. Presentation by Westbrook and Berman
>-------------------------------------------
>    Although it should be clear from the talks at the open meeting, 
>Helen Berman and John Westbrook would like to summarize the progress 
>in the adoption of mmCIF and related PDBML within the macromolecular 
>community.
>
>3. Provision of a schema for a common CIF<->XML mapping.
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>    Since non-crystallographic groups who have adopted XML will at 
>some point wish to access crystallographic results, there is a need 
>for CIF to XML (and vice versa) conversions.  This requires the 
>development of an XML schema to represent information stored in CIF. 
>A COMCIFS approved schema would ensure maximum compatibility.
>
>4. The future development of crystallographic file structures.
>------------------------------------------------------------
>    After nearly fifteen years, the IUCr has an impressive archive of 
>CIFs and considerable experience in their manipulation (though much 
>less experience in the computer-reading of dictionaries).  However, 
>if CIF does not move forward to keep pace with developments in the 
>rest of the world, it will soon become as obsolete as card images. 
>New features are needed in CIF if it is to provide crystallographers 
>with state-of-the-art information services.
>    This item breaks down into a number of issues:
>    a. avoiding the problems identified in DDL1 and DDL2 dictionaries,
>    b. convergence of DDL1 and DDL2 into a single DDL standard,
>    c. adoption of new features such as the definition of  vectors and methods
>                        (i.e., computer-readable algebraic definitions),
>    d. interfacing CIF with emerging standards in related fields,
>    e. maintaining compatibility with the existing CIF archives.
>
>4a. Presentation by Hall and Westbrook
>    Syd Hall and John Westbrook have asked to present their thoughts 
>on the future directions of CIF.
>
>4b. Open discussion on the future of CIF.
>
>5. Adjournment
>--------------
>
>
>Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:idbrown 29.vcf (TEXT/ttxt) (0019A794)
>_______________________________________________
>comcifs mailing list
>comcifs@iucr.org
>http://scripts.iucr.org/mailman/listinfo/comcifs


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

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