[NeXus-committee] obsolescence and evolution: NeXus needs a historic dimension

[Joachim Wuttke]

 > However, I’m not sure I understand why we need a whole new version of
 > the language because we’ve found some files that don’t validate.

Certainly not because of some files.
These cases, and other issues I raised in previous postings, are
however indicators that NeXus has not the degree of precision one
is used to expect from a technical standard.

You need a new NeXus version as little as any programmer needs Python3
or C++17. If your facility is writing NeXus right now, you should not
change anything.

It's not you who needs a new version, but NeXus. Just as any computing
language, NeXus will either evolve or die.

I fear, death will come in form of cynism. Newcomers like me, ordered
by their management to generate NeXus files, but encountering all kinds
of ambiguities and inconsistencies and historic ballast of a moving
target, are faced with a simple choice: either engage actively to make
NeXus penetrable, or resignate - spray a few NX tags over HDF5, append
the file extension nxs, and report successful implementation.

- Joachim

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 4916 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
URL: <http://lists.nexusformat.org/pipermail/nexus-committee/attachments/20140716/37bb8c1c/attachment.p7s>