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E. Shaya, B. Thomas, J. Gass, J. Blackwell (Astronomical Data Center/GSFC-NASA, RITSS), C. Cheung (Astronomical Data Center/GSFC-NASA)
We present the basics of the eXtensible Data Format (XDF), an XML-based scientific data interchange language developed at the Astronomical Data Center (NASA). XDF addresses common needs of scientific data, and provides a generic wrapper around most existing data files (see related poster paper ``An XML Representation of FITS").
The goal of XDF is to serve as an interchangeable nucleus for various sub-field specific scientific languages (as may be used by NVO). The features of XDF include: n-dimensional tables, complex hierarchical structures, a data model that fuses axis information with the data structure, referencing mechanism for tiling together large arrays or equating axes in separate arrays, automated unit conversion (see related poster paper ``Generating Basic Units with XML"), and browser readiness. Both Java and Perl software packages are available for ease of integration with existing software.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://tarantella.gsfc.nasa.gov/xml/XDFhome.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: shaya@xfiles.gsfc.nasa.gov