A modified proposal, with rationale from the previous discussion. 1) add one attribute, not 2. Per Thilo's suggestion, make it the run= rather than the skip=. Current external override file syntax support simple negation computing that is somewhat readable, to allow changing just one value to pick an alternative.
2) Have the attribute associated with the delegate element, rather than with the flow constraint. Rationale: flow constraint is optional, and relates to flow; the meaning of this specification is more concerned with choosing an alternative or skipping, regardless of how many places the delegate might appear in a flow. 3) Preserve a substantial amount of backwards compatibility. This includes having previously written flow controllers continue to work unmodified. For skipping, this means the delegate will still be entered into internal tables, given to the flow controller, etc., but the dispatch of the CAS will be as if it was done with a no-op annotator; this applies also to initialization. This allows flow controllers that had a hard-coded flow to continue to work. For alternatives (using the same delegate "key"), have the picked one entered into the internal tables. 4) The CDE will need to have a way to (optionally) specify a External Configuration File to use when dealing with a descriptor, and have a defined strategy if no such file is available. It should store the path to the specified file in a property-local setting for subsequent use in Eclipse. 5) UIMA-AS, if managing an aggregate as an asynchronous aggregate, may need to recognize skipped delegates. 6) External Resource Definitions... for skipped / alternative items: These might or might not be referred to by other delegates. These are handled for backwards compability: for alternatives (sharing the same key), only the one which is picked is included. For skipping: the resource omitted only if there are no references to it from non-skipped things. Otherwise it is included, even though its associated annotator is skipped. I've probably forgotten some things... -Marshall
