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 | | Quinta da Boa Vista, 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BRASIL | | E-mail: maurobio@acd.ufrj.br | | Home Page: http://read.at/digitax/personal.html | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + "Life is complex. It consists of real and imaginary parts."