COMCIFS 2023 draft report for your consideration

[James H]

Dear COMCIFS,

Please see a draft report for COMCIFS for 2023 below. As this was due at
the end of last month, I'd like to send it off to Chester on Monday. With
apologies for that short turnaround time, if there is any important
CIF-related news that I've missed please advise by Monday morning and I
will edit it in - I'm 100 words below the new 500 word allowance.

thanks,
James.

COMCIFS Report 2023
===================

COMCIFS is responsible for development and maintenance of the
CIF standard.

Membership

COMCIFS consists of a relatively large number of ordinary members, and
a few members who cast votes in the case that consensus is not
reached.  In 2023 Stephen Burley was nominated as a voting member to
replace John Westbrook. Other voting members are James Hester
(Chair), John Bollinger (Co-secretary), Brian McMahon (Co-secretary), and
Herbert
Bernstein.

International Tables Volume G

With some key dictionaries in flux and the fundamental chapters
essentially complete, the focus of work on Volume G shifted to the
latter chapters covering applications of CIF. A preview volume
containing the current drafts of almost all chapters was exhibited at
the IUCr meeting in Melbourne.

Dictionary development

After more than a decade, a new version of the core dictionary has
been formally released. This is the first time the latest version on
the IUCr website has been presented using the DDLm dictionary
definition language and is the culmination of many years of work.

Following this, a new dictionary for use with data spread over
multiple data blocks has been published. This is part of ongoing work
to allow CIF to handle more complex data sets containing related data
originating from multiple sources in a rigorous way.

In other news, both Quantum Crystallography and High Pressure
commissions indicated interest at the IUCr meeting in developing
discipline-specific dictionaries; the magnetic CIF dictionary saw
significant additions from the Commission on Magnetic Structures; a
working group was formed after the IUCr meeting to develop a crystal
structure prediction dictionary; the imgCIF dictionary was placed on a
firmer footing going forward after agreement to separate it out from
the CBFLib distribution; and the powder dictionary expanded rapidly
after many years of stasis.

IUCr 2023

COMCIFS ran a Dictionary Development Workshop prior to the IUCr
meeting in an attempt to broaden the pool of contributors. Around a
dozen attendees were introduced to the concepts behind CIF
dictionaries and participated in live development of a toy dictionary
using online tools.

COMCIFS and CommDat were joint sponsors of a number of stimulating
Microsymposia, and CIF was noted in a positive light by a number of
speakers in other sessions.

Looking forward

In the run-up to publication of Volume G all dictionaries will see
formal releases. Work is ongoing to finalise the non-core
dictionaries, with particular focus on powder CIF.
-- 
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