Dear David

Thanks for this proposal, which I support in its current form, with some minor 
points:

  * Maybe Section 5 should be renamed "Coordinate systems _and domain_" to 
recognise this new construct.
  * I think the presence of a `dimensions` attribute can be taken as defining 
the variable as a domain variable rather than a data variable - is that right? 
If so, and if it's not stated, I think it should be. Maybe also it should not 
be allowed to have a variable to have both dimensions and a `dimensions` 
attribute, to avoid confusion.
  * A scalar _data_ variable has only one data value. A domain variable also 
has one data value (you can't have a netCDF variable with no data values). Is 
there really a need to allow domain variables for scalar domains, with the 
possibly surprising empty `dimensions` attribute?
  * You say, "It is of arbitrary type since it contains no data." I think it 
would be clearer to say e.g., "The variable should be a scalar (i.e. it has no 
dimensions) of arbitrary type, and the value of its single element is 
immaterial."
  * The conformance document would be more future-proof if you didn't 
explicitly list the attributes which aren't recommended, and refer instead to 
Appendix A.
  * I find the sentence describing this attributes as rather hard to 
understand. It says
> It is recommended that a domain variable does not have any other attributes 
> that are also used to directly describe data values, defined in 
> [attribute-appendix] as those attributes that are used for non-coordinate 
> data which also do not have domain variable nor global use.

   for which would suggest

>  It is recommended that a domain variable does not have any of the attributes 
> marked in Appendix A as applicable to data variables except those which are 
> also marked as applicable to domain variables.
  * Typo in "blank separated list of the dimensions names".

Jonathan

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