First of all, I would like to thank you all for your comments, I did learn a few (new) things ;-)
I also would like to apologise to people who consider that we should stop posting questions/remarks about "EDIFACT vs. X12". Sorry, but yesterday (late) night, I really needed to share my frustration ;-) I should also probably add that the fact the X12 standard specifications are not publicly available at no-cost, like the W3C standards for instance, is not preventing to work on my X12 parser. I will just patiently combine the implementation guidelines publicly available. I am just wondering if I may publish the result f compilations ;-) Regarding the price of X12 publications, it was interesting to remember that they were first published on paper, and paying for a book (still) seems reasonable. On the other hand, I do not complain about the current price of X12 publications because the paper is not needed anymore. I do support the concept of paying author rights in a world where the publications do not need physical supports anymore. I do NOT download any music or movies ILLEGALLY, I swear! I am complaining about the funding model of X12. First, I think that the world has changed, today (and probably even yesterday) you do have working funding model that do not include paying for downloading a publication, e.g. W3C, OASIS, and many other industry specific messaging standards. Second, the most important point is that the current funding model of X12 is counter-productive regarding the ultimate goal of X12. If you want a standard to be adopted, I think you need to "freely" distribute it. OK, now I can't stop writing... Ultimately, I am more frustrated about the "EDI planet", in which I have seen/heard too many stories about EDI being complex/expensive/difficult/etc. And, finally, the fact that you have to pay 5,000 - 7,500 USD for one X12 publication is just one single symptom of a larger decease :-/ The (beautiful) original idea was/is to automate the exchange of information, and it is indeed a difficult task, but not for technical reasons! AS2, EDI, X12, ODETTE, ebXML, etc. that does not matter. Today (and probably yesterday as well), exchanging a stream of bits within a structured "format" and "mapping" it, is a-piece-of-cake from a technical point of view ;-) In my opinion, the main problem with EDI is that "it is impossible for human beings to model the same reality in the same data model" (my conjecture) and thus you need to map the data model of the source system to the data model of the destination system. And again, making a map is a piece-of-cake, it's making the right map which is the difficult task. Then, all the stories about "standard" data model/format is a non-sense (according to my conjecture), it's just impossible to setup a common model. Just look the way standards are used differently ;-) If we want to standardise something, it should certainly not be the data model/format. I am an XML-guy. In the sense that I discover IT with SGML and follow closely the evolution of XML. I jumped into the wonderful idea of creating XML-based standards that will revolutionise the world with automatic trading - the ones who know UDDI will appreciate ;-) Of course, I have been disappointed ;-) It does not work! But, then my frustration became DRAMATIC, when I realised that all these XML-guys did the same "mistake" as the EDI-guys, no lessons learned from the past, still trying to standardise data models... which is non-sense :-/ Personally, I do see a solution, that might not be a solution, but at least a different way, a different thingy to standardise... OK, I need to stop writing and start working ;-) Again, thanks for your comments. We will not change the X12 funding model today, but I think it still interesting to challenge it ;-) /Patrice - http://babelabout.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------------ ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
