NIAC2024 Minutes

Participants:

  • in person: AB, SB, RB, BW, RO, TC, FS, WdN, PC + FAIRmat: MarkusK, HZB: HectorP, SonalR

  • online: HB, BB, ZM, (MK) + FAIRmat: LukasP, RubelM

NIAC2024 Minutes

Session A: Sept 27th 10:00 UTC

  • Accepted (9+3/0/0): Regarding the FAIRmat contributions when we accepting AppDefs, the corresponding base classes are also checked and can be accepted even if they have not yet been registered as contributed definitions before.

Session B: Sept 27th 13:30 UTC

  • Accepted (9+3/0/0): Aaron Brewster and Sandor Brockhauser continues serving NIAC as Executive Chair and Secratary respectavly.

  • Accepted (9+3/0/0): Peter Chang continues serving NIAC as Documentation Release Manager.

  • MK: informed us that he goes to retirement and leaves NIAC. NIAC appreciated his contribition along all years.

  • NIAC is interested in improving the stewardship of the code which may include changing the Constitution to better describe the role of the Techincal Manager. NIAC will try to address this and elect someone in coming days.

Session C: Sept 27th 16:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • bit-depth_image

  • UPPER case

  • NeXus Logo

Joining participants:

  • MO + OSCARS: GiannisK

  • PJ

Session D: Sept 28th 10:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • Accepted (10+2/0/0): clarification and unification of the rules for using substitutable UPPERCASE names or name parts which shall be indicated in documentation as italic following a clean use of nameType [specified, any, partial] in nxdl. See issue #1436

  • NIAC Accepted (without vote): NXdata documentation shall be improved. Gallery to show capabailities and separate pages for details. See PR #1396

Session E: Sept 28th 13:30 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • NIAC Accepted (without vote): meaning of @axes is clearified as default axes for every dimension. See PR #1396

  • NIAC page to be harmonised with manual. See issue #1472

  • Accepted for review: Official full Logo for both dark and light themes and squared versions with offset.

  • Accepted for review: Documentation for AppDefs and Base Classes shall contain groups for common explanation while keeping the full list of definitions, too.

  • Accepted for review: versioned, published, html docs including latest unreleased docs. See issue #1434

  • Accepted (10+2/0/0): group definition type=”NXentry” name=”entry” is too restrictive. ENTRY/@entry shall not be declared, but rather be deprecated and later removed. See issue #1438

  • NIAC accepted: Licenses may need to be harmonised, so let us check with leagal advisors.

Session F: Sept 28th 16:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • github repo ‘definitions’ could be lighten and cleaned

  • NeXus Fields: can they be represented by either dataset or NXlog group?

  • support for complex units, like eV/mm

Session G: Sept 29th 10:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • choiceTypee shall render alson on HTML documentation

  • clean definition for NX_CHAR to avoid confusions

  • Accepted (9+2/0/0): Base classes support inheritance. PR shall come which implements it. See issue #1442.

  • NIAC cincluded on the use of multiple AppDefs. Entry shall host them in separated subentries

Session H: Sept 29th 13:30 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • NIAC agreed on the vesrion of the new logo to be proposing a new logo

  • NIAC Accepted (9+3/0/0): Additionally to traditional unit categories NX_xxx, arbitrary complex units (eV/mm) are now also supported by NeXus by providing an example following Unidata description. See issue #1435.

  • FAIRmat proposed modifications on base classes are reviewed

  • NIAC Accepted (9+3/0/0): NXaperture See issue #1446.

Session I: Sept 29th 16:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • FAIRmat proposed modifications on base classes are reviewed

Session J: Sept 30th 10:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • FAIRmat proposed modifications on base classes are reviewed

  • NIAC Accepted (8+3/0/0): the suggestions in NXenvironment, and provided guidelines for final implementation. See issue #1451

Session K: Sept 30th 13:30 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • FAIRmat proposed modifications on base classes are reviewed

  • NX_MATH

  • NIAC Accepted (7+4/0/0): Instead of mathematical formula, one shall use forumla descriptions in NeXus. See issue #1452

  • NIAC Accepted (7+3/0/abstain:1): the suggestions in NXinstrument, and provided guidelines for final implementation issue #1452

Session L: Sept 30th 16:00 UTC

list of main topics from the issues addressed:

  • FAIRmat proposed modifications on base classes are reviewed

  • NIAC Accepted (7+5/0/0): NXstress can be merged after fixes. See issue #1039

  • Checked the constitution and how the lifecycle of definitions (Contributed, AppDef, BaseClasses) are regulated. Although the Constitution does not details, a section in the Manual describes that defnitions must go through a phase when the community has tested it and shall become part of the standard only afterwards. Both FAIRmat and NXstress proposals are according to this rule.

  • NIAC Accepted (7+4/0/abstain:1): NXmonochromator after fixing the units according to the new standard. See issue #1453

  • NIAC Accepted (7+5/0/0) NXdistortion, NXregistration to become subclasses of NXprocess See issue #1454

  • NIAC Accepted (7+4/0/0) NXroot with suggested modifications See issue #1418

  • NIAC Accepted (7+4/0/0) NXsource with suggested modifications See issue #1459

  • NIAC suggested not to change NXuser other than having identifier added via subclassing.