Dallwitz's comparisons

[Mauro J. Cavalcanti]

Dear Computer Taxonomists,

I have just taken a look at the documents recently announced by Mike
Dallwitz. They look nice, and the  comparison of formats for descriptive
data seems especially useful. However, I have noticed the complete
absence of the XDF format. It seems that if we are engaging in a
comprehensive comparison of formats for biological descriptive data, XDF
deserves a little more attention. Perhaps it has not been widely used,
but notwithstanding one of its main applications has been quite
impressive - the importing of a large part of the Missouri Botanical
Garden TROPICOS database to the use of the ILDIS Project. And this
happened more than a decade ago, in the pre-Web era, and before all the
current interest in distributed databases and metadata.

I hope to find some time in the near future for trying to put some
documentation on XDF on the Web, for our general use.

Regards,

--
+ - - - - - - - - - - - - Mauro J. Cavalcanti - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| Setor de Paleovertebrados, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia |
|                      Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro               |
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