Fwd: [csvw] Remove requirement to merge metadata (#511)

FYI for those in the group who may not look regularly at the github issues but may consider an implementation. Thus may reduce the complexity of the implementation significantly.


Ivan

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Ivan Herman
Tel:+31 641044153
http://www.ivan-herman.net

(Written on mobile, sorry for brevity and misspellings...)



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Gregg Kellogg <notifications@github.com>
> Date: 22 April 2015 19:46:55 CEST
> To: w3c/csvw <csvw@noreply.github.com>
> Subject: [csvw] Remove requirement to merge metadata (#511)
> Reply-To: w3c/csvw <reply+0007f21366923576385b67e55029666f10b7cfa2f70886cd92cf00000001114fa08f92a16>
> 
> During the course of simplifying things subsequent to our London F2F, the role of metadata merging has narrowed to the point where it might make sense to remove it altogether.
> 
> Originally, the idea was that metadata for CSVs might be pulled from several different locations (user-specified, per-file, and per-directory), but issues #448, #314, #293, and #200).
> 
> Currently, the process involves either starting with metadata, in which case what is merged is the embedded metadata along with user-specified options which typically just affect the Dialect Description, or start with a CSV, in which case the first Metadata file found relating to that CSV is used as if it were the specified metadata. With the normative rules for embedded metadata, the embedded metadata ends up just being column title information, which needs to be specified either through name or titles in the metadata file in order to successfully use the CSV. This could be replaced by a mechanism which simply uses the found or specified metadata without merging embedded metadata and simply ensuring that the CSV columns are compatible with the metadata columns using language from the existing merge rules.
> 
> Removing metadata merging is a substantial technical and conceptual simplification, and may simplify the steps required to create a conformant implementation.
> 
> This change would affect the following:
> 
>  minor changes to Locating Metadata in the model document.
>  Overriding Metadata changes to Overriding Dialect Description
>  Embedded Metadata is removed and the discussing of embedded metadata is moved to say that such a definition would need to define how embedded metadata interacts with found/supplied metadata
>  Minor changes to Processing Tables in the model document.
>  Simplification of Creating Annotated Tables
>  Remove per-property discussion of merging metadata in the the metadata document
>  Separate Normalization from _Merging Metadata in the the metadata document
>  Describe Normalization as a required step when processing a metadata file as part Creating Annotated Tables in the model document.
> I'll follow up with a description of how existing test results would be changed as a result of making such a change.
> 
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