Positional data

In my earlier comments I had included a comment about the inclusion of a
positional data representation.  Clearly my employment by the Department of
the Army raises my personal interest in seeing the specification address
this point considerably.  I believe that as GPS technology permeates our
lives (not just your car will "know" its location, your cell phone, PDA,
maybe even your car keys(?!) will both know their location and perhaps
report it) we will need to address the representation of positional data.  I
think giving careful consideration to the inclusion of such a
representational form now is as important as the debate over time duration
and E notation.

Please note: most positional notation forms can be converted to other
positional forms.  Knowledge of the required/default/assumed precision of
positional value is also important.  Certainly, comparisons of positional
values is not a simple matter (X=Y is often a question X=Y +/- (min or max
of) positional precision of each value).  Consider also such relations as
"northof(X,Y)" or "near(X,Y[, +/-epsilon ]).  I am not suggesting such
functions be supported in the schema representation, but the potential to
represent such data and its required/default/assumed precision will
eventually benefit everyone.

Frank
Dr. Frank Mabry
Dept. of EE&CS, U.S. Military Academy
West Point, NY 10996
email: df6954@eecs1.eecs.usma.edu
Phone: (914) 938-2960

Received on Friday, 2 June 2000 10:36:13 UTC