RE: Explain-lite (Explain discussion)

At 14:51 19-11-00 +0000, Matthew Dovey wrote:

>Whilst I agree with Sebastian's view that Explain is the way it is for a
>reason and probably has a number of advantages over Explain-lite, E-Lite has
>the advantage that it is being used whereas however technically good Explain
>maybe it just hasn't been adopted (strains of O/S2 vs Windows, BetaMax vs
>VHS, etc.). I think part if this is that Explain by addressing the more
>complicated requirements is too complicated for the simple application which
>is what most people (at least initially) would want to implement. E-Lite
>fills this need as in can be implemented quickly without major overhaul of
>the Z39.50 server. I don't think anyone intends Explain-Lite to be a
>replacement for Explain but perhaps we need to investigate more closely the
>relationship between them (where one should be used rather than another,
>ensuring that one is a true subset of the other etc.)

I sure hope the specs for this thing will become visible soon, so we can 
all look at it and give comment, to say nothing of implementing it! I would 
also hope that whatever replaces or supplements Explain will ultimately be 
developed in an open forum for requirements analysis and design - not 
behind the doors of a single project. Fat Explain (to coin a term) was 
deployed (I gather) by ONE-1, and also by the ARCA project. Bob uses it, he 
says. We toy with it amongst our own applications as do many others. The 
question is whether either mechanism is capable of improving the quality of 
life for Z39.50 clients outside of closed project or private client/server 
pairs. As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out.

As for major overhaul, that depends on where you come from. If you have no 
Explain implementation and are hand-editing these Explain-lite records, 
it's a pretty quick and low-tech solution. For folks with integrated 
Explain, you're essentially required to support two separate exchange 
mechanisms.

I like the notion of ensuring that E-Lite (whatever it is) remains a 
functional subset of Explain, and would still like to compare that solution 
to a very strict, bare-bones profile for Explain which specifies the exact 
searches required to locate and retrieve basic information.

--Sebastian
--
Sebastian Hammer        <quinn@indexdata.dk>            Index Data ApS
Ph.: +45 3341 0100    <http://www.indexdata.dk>    Fax: +45 3341 0101

Received on Sunday, 19 November 2000 17:26:04 UTC