No. A good standard should ensure that all implementations that satisfy it are mutually interoperable (see, for example, the Whitworth stanard for nuts and bolts!). This requires that: 1. the standard include the the tests that supposdly conformant implementation must pass; 2. that test be necessary and sufficent to guarantee compliance; and 3. Proven compliance to the standard be necessary and sufficient to guarantee interoperability. One way to do this is to for the standard to overdetermine implementation to such an extent that exactly one implementation satisfy it. This is how 'de facto standards' work. But I was of the impression that that was not the intention of the international health care community. Am I wrong?
Quoting Williamtfgoossen at cs.com: > In een bericht met de datum 24-11-2007 8:30:05 West-Europa (standaardtijd), > schrijft stef at vivici.nl: > > > > Op 24-nov-2007, om 7:45 heeft <A > HREF="mailto:Williamtfgoossen at cs.com">Williamtfgoossen at cs.com</A> het > volgende > > geschreven: > > > > >> > > > > > > Can you, in this light explain what Barry Smith is talking about in his > > HL7-watch blog (<A > HREF="http://hl7-watch.blogspot.com/";>http://hl7-watch.blogspot.com</A>/, the > text is also underneath). > > Probably I don't understand it correctly, so if you could enlighten me that > > would be very helpful. > > > > > > I think that we all agree that a good standard should have only one > > implementation > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > > > Stef > > > > Hi Stef, > > Yes, here you have a point! > > > Sincerely yours, > > dr. William TF Goossen > director > Results 4 Care b.v. > De Stinse 15 > 3823 VM Amersfoort > email: Results4Care at cs.com > phone + 31654614458 > fax +3133 2570169 > Dutch Chamber of Commerce number: 32121206 </HTML> > -- __ Prof Bernard Cohen, Dept of Comp Sc, City Univ, Northampton Sq. London EC1V 0HB tel: ++44-20-7040-8448 fax: ++44-20-7040-8587 b.cohen at city.ac.uk WWW: http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~bernie "Patterns lively of the things rehearsed" ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
