[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Should an XML vocabulary be a Swiss Army Knife or adedicat

  • From: B Tommie Usdin <btusdin@m...>
  • To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>,"'xml-dev@l...'" <xml-dev@l...>
  • Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:02:48 -0500

Re:  Should an XML vocabulary be a Swiss Army Knife or adedicat
Roger --

While your question seems reasonable to me: "when should one 
accommodate variation in a vocabulary and when should one create 
separate vocabularies?"
I am confused by the premise that creation costs are on a par with 
usage costs. There are advantages and disadvantages to both 
approaches from the user/usage point of view, and I think this should 
be discussed only on that basis. One approach may be easier to learn, 
simpler to maintain, better support familiar user interfaces and 
reports, the other may make a growing portion of the business 
smoother, encourage users to use outside resources, reduce hand-work, 
...

The differences in the costs to CREATE the vocabularies should be 
(largely) irrelevant in an environment in which the 
vocabulary/vocabularies are create once and used many many times.

-- Tommie



At 4:39 PM -0500 2/16/09, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
>Hi Folks,
>
>A few weeks ago we discussed what's involved in creating an XML 
>vocabulary. One of the key points that I gained from that discussion 
>is:
>
>     Create an XML vocabulary to satisfy a
>     business process; otherwise, what's the point.
>
>Excellent.
>
>But what about two business processes that are the same at a high 
>level, but vary in the details; should there be one XML vocabulary 
>or two?
>
>
>EXAMPLE: LOCAL MOVING COMPANY & FEDEX
>
>At a high level both a local moving company and Fedex are the same - 
>they both move merchandise from point A to point B; they both 
>provide a way to track the status of the merchandise.
>
>At the detail level they have significant differences - the local 
>moving company can move the contents of an entire home whereas Fedex 
>primarily moves smaller items; the local moving company uses big 
>trucks to move the merchandise whereas Fedex uses airplanes; the 
>local moving company operates within a 50 mile radius whereas Fedex 
>operates worldwide.
>
>Here are two approaches to developing an XML vocabulary for the 
>local moving company and Fedex:
>
>
>APPROACH #1: Create Separate XML Vocabularies
>
>This approach takes the attitude that these are really two business 
>processes, so create two XML vocabularies - one for the local moving 
>company and one for Fedex.
>
>Advantage: it's simpler to generate the XML vocabularies. The two 
>companies won't be arguing about the XML vocabulary.
>
>Disadvantage: it will be more difficult for the local moving company 
>and Fedex to interoperate. Suppose that the local moving company 
>subcontracts with Fedex to do certain jobs; since the XML 
>vocabularies are disjoint it will be difficult to interoperate.
>
>This approach is analogous to creating dedicated appliances.
>
>
>APPROACH #2: Create One XML Vocabulary with Specialized Sections
>
>This approach takes the attitude that it's really just one business 
>process containing specialized sections.
>
>Advantage: it will be easier for the local moving company and Fedex 
>to interoperate since they share the same high level framework.
>
>Disadvantage: the XML vocabulary is more complex. The two companies 
>will argue about the XML vocabulary.
>
>This approach is analogous to creating a Swiss Army Knife.
>
>
>RECOMMENDATION?
>
>Which approach do you recommend? Perhaps there's another approach 
>that you recommend?
>
>
>/Roger
>
>_______________________________________________________________________
>
>XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by OASIS
>to support XML implementation and development. To minimize
>spam in the archives, you must subscribe before posting.
>
>[Un]Subscribe/change address: http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/
>Or unsubscribe: xml-dev-unsubscribe@l...
>subscribe: xml-dev-subscribe@l...
>List archive: http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
>List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php


-- 

======================================================================
B. Tommie Usdin                        mailto:btusdin@m...
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                           Phone: 301/315-9631
Suite 207                                    Direct Line: 301/315-9634
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in XML and SGML
======================================================================


[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index]


PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!

Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced!

Buy Stylus Studio Now

Download The World's Best XML IDE!

Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today!

Don't miss another message! Subscribe to this list today.
Email
First Name
Last Name
Company
Subscribe in XML format
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
 

Stylus Studio has published XML-DEV in RSS and ATOM formats, enabling users to easily subcribe to the list from their preferred news reader application.


Stylus Studio Sponsored Links are added links designed to provide related and additional information to the visitors of this website. they were not included by the author in the initial post. To view the content without the Sponsor Links please click here.

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Trademarks
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member
Stylus Studio® and DataDirect XQuery ™are products from DataDirect Technologies, is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation, in the U.S. and other countries. © 2004-2013 All Rights Reserved.