Re: UN/EDIFACT Communication standard.

[jerry@jvdsys.stuyts.nl (Jerry van Dijk)]

Marin David Condic (condicma@bogon.pwfl.com) wrote:

: I sort of stumbled on this communication standard called EDIFACT and I'm
: wondering if anybody has any experience with it?

Yes, although its popularity has gone down, it is still used heavily 
in logistical and supply-chain applications.

: My curiosity is along these lines: 1) Is this standard in some way in
: wide usage or are there more widely accepted standards? 

Well, at least over here it's is more or less _the_ standard.

: 2) Has anybody
: implemented record types, packages or other subsystems that provide any
: level of reusable implementation of this standard (or parts of it)? 

Yes, but this is of course propriety software.

: 3) The on-line document is - to say the least - confusing. Is there any
: sort of simplified, distilled, "EDIFACT For Dummies" document that might
: do something like show a simple record layout? (After glancing at some
: of the message definitions, I couldn't seem to get to the point where
: someone was saying something like "A date field will occupy 8 bytes -
: four bytes for year, two bytes for month, two bytes for day...." The
: info may be in there somewhere, but I got tired of digging.)

Hmmm, I think we used several documents (this is about 5 years ago), but
none that are in the public domain.

regards,
Jerry.

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-- Jerry van Dijk | Leiden, Holland
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