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Re: DADL optional rm-type


On Thursday 24 July 2008 17:29:41 Thomas Beale wrote:
> Bert Verhees wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I wrote another message before, earlier this week, but that was 
> > addresses
> > to the Java-list, but I now think it is a problem of specification.
> > ------------------
> > I want to know, is it in all cases possible to guess the rm-type in 
> > a
> > dadl- construct? I ask this, because the specification says:
> >
> > -------------------
> > http://www.openehr.org/releases/1.0.1/architecture/am/adl.pdf (page 
> > 23)
> > The basic design principle of dADL is to be able to represent data 
> > in a
> > way that is both machineprocessible and human readable, while 
> > making the
> > fewest assumptions possible about the information model to which 
> > the data
> > conforms. To this end, type names are optional; often, only 
> > attribute
> > names and values are explicitly shown.
> > -------------------
> >
> > This spec worries me, because in my opinion, the "guessing" routine 
> > for
> > an rm- type is hard to write efficient (it contains loops, and will 
> > use
> > many CPU when processing large amounts of data).
> > What is more, is it safe?
> > I say this because, some attributes are optional, maybe there can 
> > be more
> > rm- types which can be found with a certain attribute.
> >
> > Example:
> > I am thinking about DV_TEXT, it only has one required attribute, 
> > called
> > "value".
> > This is also the case for most ID-classes, like HierObjectID. How 
> > can a
> > DADL- rprocessing routine know what kind of rm-type must be stored?
>
> Bert,
>
> in these cases the type name is needed. It can be left out if your
> software knows a priori what kind of object a given dADL text is, e.g.
> an archetype parser knows that the dADL at the top of an archetype is 
> an
> instance of RESOURCE_DESCRIPTION, so it can proceed on this basis, 
> even
> though we don't include any typename in the archetype.

Thanks, Thomas, for your reply.
What I am afraid of, is that, when allowing to NOT specify the rm-type 
name, 
error-prone dadl-files can occur. Possibly an application receives 
erroneous 
dadl's as a form of communication.
Also, when there is no doubt possible, when looking into the broader 
context,  
a routine, it has to analyze this broader context, can be difficult to 
write, 
as I already said before, but the longer I think about it, the more 
difficult 
it seems.

Anyway, in my case, I will not allow not typed dadl's in the first, 
maybe 
later.

Thanks for thinking with me.
Bert



>
> - thomas
>
>
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