Comments on 2005-Oct-30 Draft DTD

Comments received by November 5 on the October 30, 2005 draft of the DTD for dynamic results are listed below:

N8VW 1. Why do you use cut words in some places and full words in others? XML is suppose to be verbose so why try to shorten the tag names. It also makes understanding by non-english speakers easier.

K5ZD 2. Add a section for hours of operation. Would be used to provide an update on operating hours.

K5ZD 3. Add a comments field (this would be a place someone could enter text about their operation, such as hear realtime audio at www.liveaudio.com or something)

K5ZD 4. One thing that I would like is an operator defined 'station info' element. Something where I could put a link to my web site for the webcams, or k5zd could have a link to the audio streaming, etc. It could be a one-liner added to the right side of a line score on a web page or just after the breakdown so the user could easily go to the web site for that station for more info or other goodies.

NØAX 5. Have you given any thought to a security function for identification?

N1MM 6. One thought I had is to make it compatible with RSS feed. Perhaps some generic tools could be used to make the scores available that way.

N1MM 7. I think a "row" should be based on a band or total, e.g.:
<qso bnd="tot"> 2630
<mlt typ="cntry">368</mlt>
<mlt typ="zone">137<mlt>
</bnd>
This would make "cut & paste" of portions easier. I'm not sure if above is valid syntax, but it can be made valid easily.

N5EG 8. My opinion is tag names should be fully spelled out. <Country> for example instead of <cntry>, or <County> instead of <cnty>. These two could be easily confused. This would help those whose native language is not English to more fully understand the meaning of the fields.

N5EG 9. I think there were a lot of problems in the past with ADIF fields being used inadvertently for multiple uses. Some contests for example would use an existing field definition for another purpose because they could not or did not want to invent a new field (which was tough in ADIF). XML is of course extensible, and any definition should make it easy for a new contest to generate relevant tag names that fit into an existing tag structure. In order to prevent tag collisions (two different contests using the same new tag), there should be an easy way to identify which contest committee is defining which tag. This could be part of a contest-specific tag structure that extends the standard tag structure. For example:
<worked AllEurope><tag specific to the WAE contest, such as QTCs> the field values </tag specific to QTC></WorkedAllEurope>. For real-time reporting we hope that lots of specific tags are not needed. For submission however it seems helpful. A DTD should make it easy and self-documenting for contest organizers to add new fields.

W9WI 10. One thing I'd like to see is a provision for notes. If, for example, 10m propagation is unusually good, I might want to send a note to that effect -- and those watching the cumulative scores might find such a note interesting.

W9WI 11. I note that the Cabrillo specification has a list of contest abbreviations. Not all contests are listed, but the major ones are. If a smaller contest (TN QSO Party, for example) were to wish to have a realtime scoreboard they could be required to specify a contest abbreviation in their rules.

W9WI 12. Cabrillo specifies a four-element CATEGORY tag, along with four additional subtags. It may not be the best route to copy Cabrillo's specifications, but on the other hand they're already done and most contest software already supports it...

PC5M 13. Is it possible to also add the VHF/UHF bands? (e.g. 6mtrs, 2 m, 70cm, 23cm, 13cm, 9, 6, 3, 1.5cm)

PC5M 14. Is it possible to add two more indicators for VHF work: distance and azimuth (beamheading) per qso?

K1TTT 15. How about adding a <link> element for a user defined web page link?

N8VW	1.	Why do you use cut words in some places and full words in others? XML is suppose to be verbose so why try to shorten the tag names. It also makes understanding by non-english speakers easier.
K5ZD	2.	Add a section for hours of operation. Would be used to provide an update on operating hours.
K5ZD	3.	Add a comments field (this would be a place someone could enter text about their operation, such as hear realtime audio at www.liveaudio.com or something)
K5ZD	4.	One thing that I would like is an operator defined 'station info' element. Something where I could put a link to my web site for the webcams, or k5zd could have a link to the audio streaming, etc. It could be a one-liner added to the right side of a line score on a web page or just after the breakdown so the user could easily go to the web site for that station for more info or other goodies.
NØAX	5.	Have you given any thought to a security function for identification?
N1MM	6.	One thought I had is to make it compatible with RSS feed. Perhaps some generic tools could be used to make the scores available that way.
N1MM	7.	I think a "row" should be based on a band or total, e.g.: <qso bnd="tot"> 2630 <mlt typ="cntry">368</mlt> <mlt typ="zone">137<mlt> </bnd> This would make "cut & paste" of portions easier. I'm not sure if above is valid syntax, but it can be made valid easily.
N5EG	8.	My opinion is tag names should be fully spelled out. <Country> for example instead of <cntry>, or <County> instead of <cnty>. These two could be easily confused. This would help those whose native language is not English to more fully understand the meaning of the fields.
N5EG	9.	I think there were a lot of problems in the past with ADIF fields being used inadvertently for multiple uses. Some contests for example would use an existing field definition for another purpose because they could not or did not want to invent a new field (which was tough in ADIF). XML is of course extensible, and any definition should make it easy for a new contest to generate relevant tag names that fit into an existing tag structure. In order to prevent tag collisions (two different contests using the same new tag), there should be an easy way to identify which contest committee is defining which tag. This could be part of a contest-specific tag structure that extends the standard tag structure. For example: <worked AllEurope><tag specific to the WAE contest, such as QTCs> the field values </tag specific to QTC></WorkedAllEurope>. For real-time reporting we hope that lots of specific tags are not needed. For submission however it seems helpful. A DTD should make it easy and self-documenting for contest organizers to add new fields.
W9WI	10.	One thing I'd like to see is a provision for notes. If, for example, 10m propagation is unusually good, I might want to send a note to that effect -- and those watching the cumulative scores might find such a note interesting.
W9WI	11.	I note that the Cabrillo specification has a list of contest abbreviations. Not all contests are listed, but the major ones are. If a smaller contest (TN QSO Party, for example) were to wish to have a realtime scoreboard they could be required to specify a contest abbreviation in their rules.
W9WI	12.	Cabrillo specifies a four-element CATEGORY tag, along with four additional subtags. It may not be the best route to copy Cabrillo's specifications, but on the other hand they're already done and most contest software already supports it...
PC5M	13.	Is it possible to also add the VHF/UHF bands? (e.g. 6mtrs, 2 m, 70cm, 23cm, 13cm, 9, 6, 3, 1.5cm)
PC5M	14.	Is it possible to add two more indicators for VHF work: distance and azimuth (beamheading) per qso?
K1TTT	15.	How about adding a <link> element for a user defined web page link?