Re: is edi translator software difficult to write? was: edi vendor complaining

Steve Richter wrote:

is it difficult to write an EDI translator? or port code from Linux? I dont
follow why so many are locked into the Innovis package.

The answer is both yes and no. No, it's not difficult to write a translation program for outputting EDI docs, all you need are the specs. It gets a bit more difficult for interpreting inbound EDI docs.

The real difficulty in EDI software and the reason why these companies exist, is the expandibility of the packages to handle transacting with a number of trading partners. The software authors have spent a lot of time programming configurability into their packages so that adding another trading partner or transaction set would involve, hopefully, minimal work. In an environment where the code is home grown, adding a trading partner and/or transaction set could mean quite a bit of effort.

Bill