CIF2 syntax document for COMCIFS approval

Ralf W. Grosse-Kunstleve rwgk at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 27 22:53:49 GMT 2010


After careful consideration I vote "no" on the proposed new CIF syntax,
although I agree with the general direction. I'm deeply concerned about
introducing new syntax for delimiting strings without solving a
long-standing problem. James explained to me that the "extra
multi-line text delimiters are provided to further reduce the likelihood of 
running into text that is impossible to delimit." I strongly believe that
the problem needs to be solved completely, for example by adopting the
widely used backslash escape semantics.
I would agree to the proposal after either
  - an escape mechanism for the new triple-quoted strings is added or
    alternatively
  - the new triple-quote syntax is removed, so that it can be introduced
    later with an associated escape mechanism.

Ralf

----- Original Message ----
> From: James Hester <jamesrhester at gmail.com>
> To: Discussion list of the IUCr Committee for the Maintenance of the CIF  
>Standard (COMCIFS) <comcifs at iucr.org>
> Sent: Tue, November 16, 2010 3:28:32 PM
> Subject: CIF2 syntax document for COMCIFS approval
> 
> Dear COMCIFS,
> 
> After more than a year of discussion, the DDLm working  group has
> converged on a specification for a new CIF syntax, dubbed  "CIF2".  The
> one-page document describing the changes relative to CIF1  is available
> on the IUCr website  at
>http://www.iucr.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/47434/cif2_syntax_changes_jrh20101115.pdf.
>.
> A  record of the extensive discussions of the DDLm working group is
> available  at http://www.iucr.org/resources/lists/ddlm-group, with
> encoding-specific  discussions taking place  at
> http://www.iucr.org/resources/lists/cif2-encoding
> 
> This CIF2  specification is now presented to COMCIFS for approval. I
> urge all COMCIFS  voting members to register their vote in a timely
> fashion.
> 
> James  Hester
> COMCIFS Chair
> -- 
> T +61 (02) 9717 9907
> F +61 (02) 9717  3145
> M +61 (04) 0249  4148
> _______________________________________________
> comcifs mailing  list
> comcifs at iucr.org
> http://scripts.iucr.org/mailman/listinfo/comcifs
> 


More information about the comcifs mailing list