On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 11:16, David Forslund wrote: > But HL7 and OMG HDTF are not competing technologies. > This is an error that keeps getting propagated. The OMG specs make HL7 data > even more useful by adding functional behavior. One needs to move > archetypes around. We can do that > in many ways. But more than that is needed to have systems work together. > My DNS example applies here. We need more than a data representation > for systems. We need functional semantic behavior for different systems > to work together. Data standards are only part of the problem, but it > seems to be the one everyone focuses on.
Yes, you are 100% correct: one of HL7's failings is that it is a datagram standard only. In the object-oriented parlance used by OMG HDTF, "interface definitions" includes not just the data passed between objects, but the methods which each object exposes. The problem is that many IT people were trained before O-O ideas were mainstream, and they don't appreciated this distinction. Hence they spend much time knocking out HL7 datagram standards, then they all go off and program completely different, non-standardised behaviours into their HL7 data pumps and applications in response to these standardised messages. Tim C
