Annotator-supplied features

If possible, the selected range should appear as the value of the new name without single-quotes.

Some top-level features should be computed, others require annotator -decision. Some features are unique to a particular selection type, others are +

Some features can and should be computed, others require annotator +decision. Some features and/or feature values are unique to a particular selection type, others are shared across all or some types.

Accordingly, in order for the annotator to supply the required information, a form should pop up with all the features appropriate to the selection type. Literal or array-valued form fields will just require a value menu (allowing multiple selection in the array-valued case), but features with dictionary values will require cascading sub-forms.

The sections below tabulate the annotator-supplied features and their -possible values.

The next two sections document the annotator-supplied and +software-supplied features. Except for 'comment', whose value is free text, +allowed values are tabulated.

+ Annotator-supplied features +

+ All types + + string: unconstrained. By its nature difficult to +exploit, really should only be used to document a problem with the available +feature&value vocabulary or structure. + +

+ Both one-dimensional types + + string: "data"|"key"|"label" +

"key" is my preferred word for what Dresden call "attribute". In the +simpler cases, think of it as what you might use in an HLOOKUP or VLOOKUP cell.

The "key" and "label" content types are for use (as in the Dresden +paper example) where compound keys/labels are indicated by row or column spans.

+ + +

When a form for a matrix is completed, if type is 'data' a pop-up should offer to auto-fill +based on content/type. If chosen, this fills the matrix with +named ranges of the appropriate orientation (rows, columns or, in the case of +cells, both). If +it's not too hard, it would be good to go on to pop up the form for each +generated range +in turn, either having asked in advance for appropriate +features whose values are the same for all the ranges, or carrying forward +values from one to the next as defaults.

+ Issues +

+ Compound labels and keys +

There's a problem with +defining the structure I want for compound labels and keys, in that you can't +for example select the 6th column of rows 2 through 4 in the Dresden example, +to denote the "Group stage/Match 2/GA" column label:

+ + + +

Excel would allow you to define a name for +F2:F4 in that spreadsheet, but I don't think you can select that +range with the mouse

+ Metadata +

Nothing in the above proposal provides a way to annotate what Dresden +call 'Metadata'. We could simply provide another 1-D type, e.g. 'meta', I suppose, or just allow uninteresting regions to remain unannotated. +There is a difference between on the one hand informative prose such as occurs in the Dresden +example with the Metadata label, and regions whose type is just not obvious (as +e.g. lots in the Kenneth Lay sheet from the Enron dataset...