RE: Compression (was RE: COMPLEXITY BIG ISSUE)

[David RR Webber <Gnosis_@compuserve.com>]

Message text written by David Burdett
> 
I agree that compression is important. But before we go down this route can
someone tell me if the communication transport providers compress data that
is sent over the wire (literally). I know that the ordinary modems used in
PCs do.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Can we further agree that compression is a red-herring!!!

Let's not go there - this is all on-the-wire detail at best - and
same thing applies to harddrive storage.  I could not care less
how you do that - that's your problem internally - nothing to do
with interoperability.

Also - people are not listening here - EDI tried to go there and
it hurts.   That's why people are looking at XML and seeing open
standards that do NOT demand specific this or that in the hardware
is the answer.   Plus the field moves so fast - its impossible to track - 
look at 10BaseT, now 100BaseT, and it is backward compatible,
and so on.

Next year someone comes out with incredible 1000BaseX that 
everyone needs to buy.  We're not in this game and we should
keep totally clear of it all.

DW.