As I mentioned in my presentation in Malta at ERC 2004, I've put together a new discussion group at Yahoo to focus on issues and solutions for developers using Rev to make plugins and other components for use in multiple applications.

The Rev Interoperability group is at:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revInterop/>


I've uploaded two files there:

- EMCI.txt - A first (and rough) draft of a specification to
  help such components play nice with others.

- lib4WSHELL - An example library shell which can be used as
  a template for building your own libraries, with a few
  conveniences built in.  This shell is also available in
  RevNet.


If you build libraries and other components for use by other Rev developers, or have been itching to do so, this discussion group may be helpful. Please feel free to rip apart the current rough draft spec so we can all contribute to revising it into something that's truly useful for everyone.


Here's the introduction section for the draft 001 to give you a feel for what that group's discussion is focused on:

------------------------------------------------------

INTRODUCTION
------------
As the Transcript development community grows we can expect many new innovative solutions coming from its members. These include:


- Libraries
  Stack files that hold scripts which can be called from throughout
  the message path, initialized with "start using".

- Components
  Objects or groups of objects which have a specific purpose or
  function, such as a table widget or FTP settings dialog, useful
  across multiple projects.

- Templates
  Prefabricated collections of objects which work together to
  provide the basis for a complete software application, such
  as a shell for a slide show viewer or a system utility.

As the variety of these things grows issues of interoperability are introduced, such as name space conflicts among handlers or objects. In addition to minimizing errors, there is an opportunity to provide easier integration of elements from different third parties.

This initiative proposes a set of conventions which aim to serve both goals, minimizing the risk of introducing errors when integrating elements, and exploring ways to make it simpler to use such elements.

Much of what is needed for that goal could be described generically as "metadata", additional information bound to the objects in question but which do not directly affect performance of those objects.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiatibe (DCMI) is a consortium effort to facilitate exchange of documents. Given that the goals of the DCMI and this initiative are in many ways very similar to ours, and that the DCMI working group has already expended tremendous investment in defining metadata needs for such purposes, this initiative aims to use DMCI nomenclature and conventions whenever practical.

To reinforce this deference to the DCMI project and as a tip-of-the-hat to the company that produces Transcript and Revolution (Runtime Revolution Ltd. of Edinburgh), this project is given the lighthearted name of "Edinburgh Core Metadata Initiative" ("ECMI").
....


--
 Richard Gaskin
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 Developer of WebMerge: Publish any database on any Web site
 ___________________________________________________________
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]       http://www.FourthWorld.com
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