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#104: Clarify the interpretation of scalar coordinate variables -----------------------------+---------------------------------------------- Reporter: jonathan | Owner: [email protected] Type: defect | Status: new Priority: medium | Milestone: Component: cf-conventions | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: -----------------------------+---------------------------------------------- Comment (by jonathan): Dear Ed and Mark As you know, this is a long-running discussion with Mark. However, I maintain that what David and I propose here is what the convention is intended to mean. Firstly, this is because I am confident that it's what the authors of the convention had in mind when scalar coordinate variables were invented. Of course memories are not perfect, so I cannot be certain, but that's my honest recollection. Secondly, I think it is the most obvious interpretation of the words as they stand now. If we wanted to introduce a conceptually different kind of coordinate variable, it would be misleading to write, "Scalar coordinate variables have the same information content and can be used in the same contexts as a size one coordinate variable." I would say that the evident intention of that statement is that scalar coordinate variables ''mean'' the same as size one coordinate variables (not size one auxiliary coordinate variables). Thirdly, it is sufficient to have two abstract kinds of coordinate variable, and because it is simpler it should be preferred. David and I propose these changes because Mark suggests an alternative interpretation, which would not be what the convention was intended to mean, and which we would therefore like to exclude. Our aim is to clarify the intention of the CF document. That is why this is a defect ticket. The document is erroneous in apparently allowing an interpretation which was not intended. Your arguments are concerned with flexibility in the interpretation of CF- compliant data. I think that's a different matter from what the convention means. It's fine to reinterpret data as part of analysing or processing it. That's a routine thing to do. Therefore our statement of what the convention means does not prevent your interpretation of CF-compliant data. I wrote about this on [http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/pipermail/cf- metadata/2013/056615.html the email list]. It would be interesting to know your response to that (on the email list). I appreciate that you would be rightly concerned if there was a loss of flexibility, but I really don't think you need to be. You can offer the user of software a flexibility in interpreting scalar coordinate variables, if you want to (changing size one Unidata coordinate variables into size-one auxiliary coordinate variables or vice-versa). It is flexibility in the treatment of data which is of benefit to users of data. I appeal to you to consider this argument as a kind of compromise and to allow the clarification we propose to be made. Best wishes and thanks Jonathan -- Ticket URL: <https://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/trac/ticket/104#comment:10> CF Metadata <http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/> CF Metadata This message came from the CF Trac system. To unsubscribe, without unsubscribing to the regular cf-metadata list, send a message to "[email protected]" with "unsubscribe cf-metadata" in the body of your message.
