Re: Just what is a Core Component? Well, it depends on what "is" is.

["William J. Kammerer" <wkammerer@foresightcorp.com>]

Mark Crawford continues to demand "a firm definition of a core
component."  As Mark is chair of the Joint EWG/X12 Core Component Team,
it would be nice if had a definition of the things he's lording over.

The definition of a "core" component depends on what a "component" is.
Once you had that, you could just add on verbiage that the "core" ones
are "really important and central."  Now I might be tempted to proffer
an opinion that a component is like a class in object-oriented
programming parlance, and then work from there. But I would be met
reprovingly with "objects carry viruses."  So we'll avoid that tack, as
I abhor confrontation.

A definition of core component should probably not talk too much about
XML or other implementation frameworks, so it should remain
satisfactorily abstract.   Mike Rawlins would insist that we add "syntax
neutral" to any description.

I figured there must be something in all the old stale Open-EDI and TMWG
stuff that could be cut-and-pasted for a definition.  ISO/IEC 14662 -
Open-EDI, at http://www.ebxml.org/project_teams/jdt/resources/, includes
a definition of a "Semantic Component" (SC): "a unit of information
unambiguously defined in the context of the business goal of the
business transaction.  A SC may be atomic or composed of other SCs. SCs
are defined by knowledgeable parties such as user groups and proposed
for standardisation and registration in one or more repositories...."
Is that a start?

To Brian Hayes:  I have given out the URL for accessing ISO 8601 on a
number of occasions on various ebXML mailing lists; e.g., see
http://lists.ebxml.org/archives/ebxml-core/200012/msg00019.html, which
refers to http://www.iso.ch/markete/8601.pdf.  As you undoubtedly
retrieved the document from there in the first place, it would have been
sufficient to merely pass on the URL.  I'm gently hinting that there are
ways of avoiding attaching large files to e-mails.

Which reminds me:  notice that hotels now include a $.10 a minute
surcharge for using a local line over 60 minutes?  I never paid too much
attention to that, as who can talk that much?  Well, it came to roost on
a slow 34kbs line while downloading e-mail while attending the
Washington EWG (and why do the Washington suburbs, in the center of the
world, have the worst Internet connections?), as Marcia McClure of the
BP group felt it was important to send the same set of multi-megabyte
files to multiple mailing lists.

William J. Kammerer
FORESIGHT Corp.
4950 Blazer Pkwy.
Dublin, OH USA 43017-3305
+1 614 791-1600

Visit FORESIGHT Corp. at http://www.foresightcorp.com/
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