Opentelemetry-specification: Clarification required for Resource attribute values.

[cijothomas]

The ResourceCreation section says the Attributes for Resource follows the common attributes rules, which means value can be string,bool,double,float, array of these.

When Merge faces a collision, it says if the primary has "empty string", override it.
Question: What if primary is not even string? for eg: what if primary is array?

RetrieveAttribute section says the attributes names and values are just strings.
"_The attributes should consist of the name and values, both of which should be strings._"

Specify Resource from ENV variable says all attrubute values Must be considered strings.
"_All attribute values MUST be considered strings._"

Is the attribute value for Resource expected to contain just strings only?
Or should it support the common Attribute?
If common, then how should Merge handle collisions?
if common, then how to configure it using ENV variables?

[Oberon00]

When Merge faces a collision, it says if the primary has "empty string", override it.

I think we should remove this wording. It makes less sense now that resources support different attribute types.

if common, then how to configure it using ENV variables?

I guess we only support strings with the current format. We might want to extend the syntax to support more (e.g. an envvar set to a JSON object string?), but that would be after GA.

[Oberon00]

1345 "Make Resource.Merge consistent with Span.SetAttribute" partially resolves this.

[cijothomas]

The current wording in the spec addresses the question in this issue. We can close this.