1.6 Where to Begin

RESQML is a data exchange format, which has been designed based on existing industry practice. During its development, industry professionals, through their work with Energistics and its RESQML special interest group (SIG), were striving to design a standard that would meet the needs of the data and diversity of practice along the major phases of subsurface workflows. The resulting data standard is extremely flexible, to the point where no existing application will be able to consistently implement all of RESQML's capabilities.

This makes it imperative for RESQML enabled software to focus onto specific usages of basic elements, to help ensure that they are handled in a consistent fashion by any RESQML application. Where necessary, each chapter in this document begins with a "quick start" section, providing advice on import and export practices, to help with this consistency.