Talk:IDCODE

jens 06:15, 11 March 2013 (UTC) I don't know whether a special format is needed. Thus I used String in the draft.

I thought about the definition and it seems that was the simplest solution I could get.

raphael 00:08, 12 March 2013 (UTC): I think we should try to distinguish IDCODE from "name" and plain "identifiers." How about adapting ISO definitions? ISO 19135 ("Geographic information - Procedures for item registration") defines "identifier" as a "linguistically independent sequence of characters capable of uniquely and permanently identifying that with which it is associated". ISO 19118 ("Geographic Information - Encoding") defines "code" as a "representation of a label according to a specified scheme". We can combine the two:
Definition: A language-independent sequence of characters capable of uniquely and permanently identifying that with which it is associated, and defined according to a specified scheme.

Remarks: Needs to pinpoint a particular source of information, such as a publication or chart. The scheme may be named as part of the attribute value, and may be arbitrary, well-known, or according to some encoding system known only to the producer of the item.

Examples: "ISBN 978-3-86987-298-8" (ISBN for BSH Sailing directions volume Nr. 2001, 2012 edition, title "Ostsee-Handbuch, Östlicher Teil"); "Seekarte Nr. 62" (BSH number for the BSH paper chart covering the Kattegat).

Distinction: name

FYI Wikipedia also managed to find a lot to say about "identifier"...

jens 10:16, 12 March 2013 (UTC) I searched wikipedia as well and some other sources too. You are right saying that the deeper one gets into this topic the more complicated would it be.
Using the more academic definition would immediately raise the question of the schema to be used.

raphael 15:25, 12 March 2013 (UTC): The scheme would be whatever the publisher uses. It would have to be mentioned as part of the value string, e.g., "ISBN" or "Seekarte Nr." in the examples.
However, as you wrote in email, having both SOURCE and IDCODE may be redundant, given how we have defined SOURCE.