Re: AW: ebXML - core components glossary of terms and acronyms

[Betty Harvey <ebxml@eccnet.eccnet.com>]

Tim:

	I am glad to hear that there is going to be a glossary of
terms and acronyms.  I truly believe this is an essential component
for readability and comprehension of the ebXML documents.  We want
to ensure that there are no ambiguities in what is being disseminated
to the public.  Ambiguities can cause tremendous problems.

	If you look back at the history of SGML (nee XML) we find this
problem.  When SGML first became an ISO (International Standards
Organization) standard the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) adopted SGML
(Standard Generalized Markup Language) (and EDI) as part of their core
CALS ('Computer Aided Logistics Support' then 'Continuous Acquisition and
Lifecycle Support' now possibly 'Commerce at Light Speed') technology.

	At that time there wasn't a standard for styling SGML.
Humans still had to interact with the information.  The ISO
DSSSL (Document Style Semantic Specification Language) was taking
too long for the DoD timeframe.  DoD developed a style language
called FOSI (Formatting Output Specification Instance).  The
first rendition of the FOSI specification was ambiguous.  Vendors
who supported the FOSI read the specification differently.  
I don't want to belabor the story but in the end there was
a lot of time, money and effort in developing software to support
the FOSI and developing the FOSI's themselves and they were incompatible
between software platforms.  10 years later, FOSI's are still being
used today.  They have better compatibility but there are only two
vendors left who support the FOSI.  Other vendors dropped out because
of the complexity.

	We need to learn from mistakes of the past!  ebXML needs
comprehensible and unambiguous specifications if it is going to
stand the test of time - which is what I think everybody wants.
If after this exercise we are left with 2 vendors - what have
we accomplished.  

	Tim - you have a big job ahead of you |-).  Good luck!

Betty



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Betty Harvey                         | Phone: 410-787-9200 FAX: 9830 
Electronic Commerce Connection, Inc. |        
harvey@eccnet.com                    | Washington,DC SGML/XML Users Grp
URL:  http://www.eccnet.com          | http://www.eccnet.com/xmlug/
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