At 11:42 AM 3/25/03 +1000, Thomas Beale wrote:
>Tom Culpepper wrote: > >>I again would like to reiterate may opinion on this list concerning the >>modeling of Healthcare. >> >>The business of Healthcare (both Clinical and Administrative) needs to be >>modeled in a language, platform and operating system independent manner. >>This will provide the opportunity for folks to provide implementations >>that can be used across the widest spectrum while leveraging legacy >>systems. One such universal modeling language is UML (Unified Modeling >>Language) and the "OPEN" technology that is making this a reality comes >>from the Object Management Group (www.omg.com <http://www.omg.com/>) MDA >>(Model Driven Architecture). > >well as you'll see in the specs there is no language-dependent stuff - >it's all UML. The only slight problem at the moment is that OCL has some >quite broken semantics which would prevent it being used properly for the >constraints, but even then maybe we just have to go with it. In the specs >currently, the constraints are expressed in a first order predicate form >very similar to OCL. We'll have to fix tis eventually, but as almost >no-one except Eiffel people can implement the statements directly anyway, >it doesn't seem a big concern... Glad to see that. >>Making a decision to develop models that force people to use C, C++, >>Java, Effiel, Microsoft NT, Unix, MVS, or proprietary mechanisms will >>only hamper IT efforts for interoperable solutions. > >right. I don't know why we get into these discussions really - the >specifications are competely language independent (I'd have to say even >moreso than OMG actually - IDL is actually quite C++/C oriented, but >that's history - let's not waste our breath on it now!) I think that it is important, at times, to make sure this important point doesn't get forgotten. If the specifications utilizes UML then you are achieving the first step toward interoperability because UML is a modeling language not an implementation language and you can then have a Platform Independent Model (PIM) expressed in UML. Such a PIM can then be mapped to a Platform Specific Model (PSM) to target platforms like the CORBA Component Model (CCM), Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) or Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS). Standard mappings should allow tools to automate some of the conversion. Such a PSM, again expressed in UML, can then be actually implemented on that particular platform. This is the OMGs MDA (Model Driven Architecture) http://www.omg.org/mda/ As far as IDL it is an Interface Definition Language used to allow multiple language mappings. One of the first was C and C++ and now Java. I would not discount it as "history" since it is a viable part of keeping legacy systems in the loop and in fact the Java rmic (Remote Method Innvocation Compiler) generates IDL from Java classes. This was done because Sun, a strong supporter, contributor and implementor of it's specifications, went down the RMI road and quickly realized the need to interoperate with systems that utilize IDL. >>I also concur with David Forsland in the use of the Object Constraint >>Language. > >Tom, I'm interested in what you think about the review I have done. See >http://www.deepthought.com.au/it/ocl_review.html. I will get back to you as soon as I have some free time :) >- thomas beale > Tom _______________________________________________________ <http://www.2ab.com/>2AB, Inc. 1700 Highway 31 Calera, Alabama 35040 205-621-7455 ext 107 _____________________<http://www.2ab.com/ilock_ss.htm>iLock & <http://www.2ab.com/orb2.htm>orb2________________________ "Trusted Solutions for Distributed Business" Confidentiality Notice: This Email message and its attachments are for the sole use of the intended recipients. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.openehr.org/mailman/private/openehr-technical_lists.openehr.org/attachments/20030325/3600ac17/attachment.html>
