Talk:TXTDSC

After having had a discussion with the industrial technical experts of SNPWG yesterday I would like to share some more thought on formats of the files referenced by TXTDSC/NTXTDS. The ideas should be taken into consideration by TSMAD. We are not willing to press the standard in one or the other way. We only intend to ensure that the most options have been discussed.

i. The standard may define a list of acceptable file formats. The advantage is to allow *.txt as well and not forcing HOs to restructure their existing *.txt information into one particular file type like e.g. *.html/ *.xhtml/ *.htm ... No disadvantages spotted so far.

ii. The standard may permit the same information in different files with same file name but different extension; e.g. file abc.txt contains the same information like abc.xml. The advantage is to let the decision which file will be presented on an ECDIS screen to the ECDIS software. This will open a good competition market; which system provides the information in the most convenient way to the mariner. The disadvantage is how to ensure both content versions harmonized and how to convince HOs to provide the information in different formats. However, this might be a HOs or RENC work.