Proposed new record syntax for use within GRS-1 - float

GRS-1 supports a number of primitive data types, but misses floating
point values. Rather than change the spec, we have used our own EXTERNAL
for dropping floating point values in. Here is the ASN.1 we use

    TT-20-Float {z39-50-recordSyntax 1000 62 1 4} DEFINITIONS ::=
    BEGIN 
    IMPORTS z39-50-recordSyntax FROM Z39-50-Oids;
    -- Record syntax for holding floating point values in GRS-1 records.
    -- This is used in the 'ext' member of the 'ElementData' type.
    FloatValue ::= REAL
    END

Is it worth registering this somewhere? Or standardising it (in particular
the record syntax OID)? Does anyone else think putting floating point
values in GRS-1 records is useful? Not sure if its a record-syntax
or something else, but it was used within a record so record-syntax
seemed appropriate. I could not imagine using it directly in a present
response however. Its really only for use within GRS-1.

The alternative is adding to the GRS-1 CHOICE for ElementData, but
this would not be backwards compatible and 'ext' is available for
dropping in EXTERNALs so why not use it. (If people felt adding
a CHOICe was a better approach I would not be against it.)

Alan

Received on Sunday, 22 February 2004 22:59:16 UTC