From: Jim Croft To: TDWG-SDD

enunciate/tabulate exactly what it is we are trying to achieve and the shortcomings/limitations of exiting formats in reaching this goal

No sooner said than done :-). See A comparison of formats for descriptive data http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/www/compdata.htm Actually, I've been working on this for a few days, but have been hampered by some administrative work (a review of our project). The document is rather sketchy at the moment, and I will correct and add to it as time permits. There may be quite a few errors in the information on Nexus/Paup/MacClade. Also, I haven't yet had time to incorporate some of the suggestions made on this list. The paper I presented at the recent TDWG meeting is also available: Introduction to data requirements for natural-language descriptions and identification. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/www/descdata.htm -- Mike Dallwitz CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia Phone: +61 2 6246 4075 Fax: +61 2 6246 4000 Email: md@ento.csiro.au Internet: biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/