The 'linkable' key for group and dataset specifications is a holdover from NWB 1.0. It is not used by the NWB 2 schema, HDMF common schema, or any extensions to my knowledge. The only known use in the official APIs is in the HDMF validator which raises an IllegalLinkError if a link is made to a group/dataset with linkable=False. I also do not understand why a user would set linkable=False.
@oruebel and I think it could be safely deprecated.
Pro: Removes complexity from schema language. Reduces edge cases and required support in the official APIs.
Con: It is unlikely, but there may be some extensions in the wild that are using 'linkable', and this change would remove support for that functionality.
The 'linkable' key for group and dataset specifications is a holdover from NWB 1.0. It is not used by the NWB 2 schema, HDMF common schema, or any extensions to my knowledge. The only known use in the official APIs is in the HDMF validator which raises an
IllegalLinkErrorif a link is made to a group/dataset withlinkable=False. I also do not understand why a user would setlinkable=False.@oruebel and I think it could be safely deprecated. Pro: Removes complexity from schema language. Reduces edge cases and required support in the official APIs. Con: It is unlikely, but there may be some extensions in the wild that are using 'linkable', and this change would remove support for that functionality.