XML, etc. [was Re: a grandiose but (hopefully) practical idea]

[Jim Croft]

>[TU]|573895||Apomyrma||||||||valid||TWG standards
>met|complete|2001||2001-03-13 15:26:46|573817||80389|||5|180|
>[TA]|80389|Brown, Gotwald & Levieux, 1971|5|
>[RF]|||573895|SRC|120|N|N|||
>[OS]SRC||120|website|Hymenoptera Name
>Server|0.021|01/18/2001|http://atbi.biosci.ohio-state.edu:8880/hymenoptera/n
>omenclator.home_page|

Isn't this exactly what is giving Doug so much grief?   You have to know
the exact structure of the originating database before you can do anything
with it.

Wouldn't be preferable to deliver something like:
         ...
         <taxonName> Bloggsia<taxonName>
         <taxonAuthor>Jones & Brown</taxonAuthor>
         ...
and have a public standard so that every application that needs to knows
what to do with a taxonName or a taxonAuthor.

...

In this discussion we should not forget that although nomenclators,
taxonomies and checklists all look like lists of names, they are different
things constructed for different purposes, and each has different strengths
and limitations.

There are a lot of data elements in common, and wonderful opportunities for
collaboration and authority control, but the purposes to which the are put
are quite different.

jim