Quoted text is from
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, by Mike
Rawlins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>The other way to deal with these type of questions is to ignore them,
>or an RTFM if you happen to be in a particularly surly mood. At any
>rate, if we're going to keep this list useful for the vast majority of
>subscribers we need to refrain from giving useful responses.
That may be a little harsh. I get as little pleasure as anyone from
Gumtram 101 level queries, but I suspect that many of them are posed by
unfortunates whose employers have not given them adequate training or
access to the conventional translator help desks, and are thus
indirectly using the goodwill amongst EDI practitioners for their own
economic advantage. Perhaps we should enforce a <HELPDESK> tag for that
sort of query, and thus allow those who dislike such queries to filter
them out.
The other side of the coin is that postings on 'general' EDI seem fewer
than they used to be. This may not just be because of the noise level
from Gumtram mapping queries. EDI is seen as much less of an exciting
technology than it was a few years ago. Instead we have XML, and quite a
few of the posts here could be described as XML-bashing (in view of some
of the wild claims made for it these are often justified). Since less
than 10% of the code in a typical EDI system is related to the syntax
used (the rest is management, profiling, generating audit trails,
archiving etc.) and I strongly suspect that the majority of the work on
mapping is concerned with handling data and business practice
inconsistencies between trading partners, which is also
syntax-independent, I cannot see XML as a silver bullet. Because it is
less of a niche syntax than those used for EDI there will be a greater
pool of professionals who have some familiarity with it, and it may ease
application data import/export if the software writers embrace it.
I suspect that a lot of us were EDIalists when we started out, and
although EDI has not been a failure, it certainly hasn't saved the world
either. There is an element of disillusion creeping in. It is not
confined to EDI professionals; we notice an increasing number of data
exchanges in which EDI is not used because it is no longer the way
forward and XML is not used because it is still seen as too immature, so
.csv files or private tagged file formats are sent instead.
This posting seems to have drifted a bit. Oh well, so be it.
Regards
Chris
--
Chris Johnson mobile:+44 (0)7785 302122
EDIMatrix Ltd work: 0845 126 0680 or +44 20 8559 2454
fax: +44 (0)20 8559 2497
EDI website http://www.edimatrix.co.uk
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