Fwd: Re: [Clipart] REPOST: openclipart packages and the idx file

[Mike Traum]

This was direct to me, as opposed to the list (probably because of
the list misconfiguration I just posted about), so I figured I'd fwd
it to the list.

Mike

--- Nathan Eady <eady at galion.lib.oh.us> wrote:
> 
> Mike Traum wrote:
> > I haven't heard anything back about this yet. 
> > 
> > I think it would make a lot of sense to have a well-structured
> index
> > file in your packages so that other applications can be more
> easily
> > written to take advantage of your efforts and improve the user
> > experience when dealing with openclipart.
> > 
> >>
> >>With regards to the keywords.idx file in the package, can you
> start
> >>making that an xml file? It's a very perl centric file, which
> >>make's it difficult for others (like myself) to write tools that
> use
>  >> your packages.
> 
> Okay, I'll dewarnock it.
> 
> The existing keywords.idx file was _mainly_ intended to be used by
> the 
> keyword search tool (though of course it may have other uses).  It 
> exists largely because it was very easy to create.  The code that
> writes 
> it is about two lines long.  (That is just writing the index file;
> the 
> data are collected as part of a larger metadata processing
> operation 
> called authority control.)  It is also very practical for the
> keyword 
> search tool, because, again, the code that reads it is one line
> long.
> 
> I can see the value of having an XML index, but should it index
> just the 
> keywords, or also authors, titles, and other metadata?  Also it
> should 
> be named with an .xml suffix probably, something like index.xml or 
> similar.  Anyone is welcome to write a tool that creates such an
> index, 
> and presumably if the tool existed we would roll it into the
> release 
> procedure so that the release packages would include the index.  If
> such 
> a tool were written in Perl, it could just read the existing index
> in 
> one line and then walk the data structure; if it were written in
> another 
> language, it would  have to duplicate some of what the authority
> control 
> script does, in walking the actual collection and reading the
> actual 
> metadata from the images -- which means also duplicating
> SVG::Metadata. 
>   In other words, it would be significantly easier to write it in
> Perl.
> 
> I might get to it myself, eventually (in which case I would
> probably 
> just roll the functionality into the existing authority control
> script), 
> but at this time, I have several more urgent things on my personal
> TODO 
> list for this project.  Primarily, we really need to iron out those
> 
> issues with the upload script and image validation, sooner rather
> than 
> later.
> 


		
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