Hi all,

Getting back to requirements, one thing that came up at the TDWG meeting was what I think of as the character/state/comment issue.

Often, DELTA uses "characters", "states", and "comments" in the following manner: (Using XDELTA here instead of DELTA-CLASSIC because to me it's a bit more clear)

<character number="8"> <description>outer edge of front wing</description> <comment>shape</comment> <multi type="unordered"> <state number="1">convex</state> <state number="2">straight</state> <state number="3">concave</state> <state number="4">irregular</state> </multi> </character>

It was pointed out that "shape" is more than just a comment, but a critical piece of data, a "property", which modifies the character and perhaps even restricts the states to various types. Mike seemed to indicate that there would be a way to make this explicit in DELTA, though I don't recall what the mechanism was.

Should this be explored as a possible requirement? How might this be issue best be resolved?

-Noel