@davidhassell -- I left a couple comments on your PR #302 to seed some further 
discussion. 

See 
https://github.com/cf-convention/cf-conventions/pull/302#discussion_r493579512

We need to be very aware that this change will loosen / modify the 
field-variable-centric nature of CF. I've always seen this as a central tenant 
of CF that was both annoying and super useful. This addition will make a lot of 
confusing things possible. Not really an argument for or against, but something 
to keep in mind.

---

The other thing is that I'm a little confused about how a domain variable works 
when it doesn't reference any dimensions. @davidhassell points to [scalar 
coordinate 
variables](http://cfconventions.org/cf-conventions/cf-conventions.html#scalar-coordinate-variables)
 as a case where this is valid. This does make sense but calls out the need for 
inclusion of examples showing how this would work. 

A `coordinates` attribute would be required in the case that any coordinate 
variables that make up the domain are scalar coordinates.

---

Those are two general comments for people to consider. 

I do want to pose a potential change for consideration.  

Considering that this domain concept is new, we have an opportunity to require 
some things. I think it would be worth requiring all coordinate variables be 
declared in `coordinates` whether they use the dimension name or not. If there 
are other metadata that would otherwise by inferred, I think they should be 
required in this new `domain` variable construct. I'm thinking about this as a 
developer who wants a well-described domain declaration that doesn't require 
any special knowledge or inference to fully construct the spatio-temporal 
domain.

Regards, Dave

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