"Brunnock, Andy" wrote:
> I saw a
> demo where
> an Access database was reading a remote web-site's XML document using a
> very small VB script and populating the database. Reasonably impressive on
> its own but add to that the ability to pass that into a small PC based
> accounting package and you have B2B (admittedly manually initiated but with
> no retyping) for a very small business that anyone with a little Access
> knowledge and a manual could achieve.
It should be noted that very small businesses, if they use computers
for their business systems at all, use packaged business software. Very
few, if any of them, would be at all interested in having their personnel
learning to program in XML or XSL.
So you may be impressed, but where is the practical usefulness?
> Even in its current state, the number
> of tools available for XML already far outstretch that of traditional EDI.
XML does a different job to traditional EDI, so this comparison
is meaningless.
XML is a markup language used to identify data imbedded in a text
stream, whereas traditional EDI is an attempt to solve the
automated interoperation problem between dissimilar business
processes.
> Add to that the ability to include things like multi-lingual environments to
> an XML document without altering the structure and meaning of the
> information (much like your multi-channels on a DVD) and you have fantastic
> potential.
"You" also have a fantastic misconception. XML uses tags to identify
data. Those tags are in a given language. XML cannot, therefore, be
used in multilingual environments.
> We just need some guidelines, templates, standards, whatever you want to
> call them that everyone follows to make the whole process flow smoothly.
I suspect "we" also need to understand more precisely the problem that is
to be solved.
--
Ken Steel
ICARIS Services
Brussels and Melbourne
Research results: http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/research/icaris
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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