Comments - Open Source legislation? - TechHui2024-03-29T15:50:25Zhttp://www.techhui.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=1702911%3ABlogPost%3A36162&xn_auth=noThanks for these comments. On…tag:www.techhui.com,2009-03-24:1702911:Comment:361822009-03-24T03:36:02.241ZJoe Danehttp://www.techhui.com/profile/JoeDane
Thanks for these comments. On re-reading my post, I think I should have framed the question differently.<br />
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It's safest to assume that there's no funding at all. In fact, better to think of this as a hypothetical. You are the leader of the Free State of Kauai, say, and you're starting your administrative procedures from scratch. How would you use (or would you use) "little languages" or markup or whatever to document the rules?<br />
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There is no need at all to have the rules expressed such that a…
Thanks for these comments. On re-reading my post, I think I should have framed the question differently.<br />
<br />
It's safest to assume that there's no funding at all. In fact, better to think of this as a hypothetical. You are the leader of the Free State of Kauai, say, and you're starting your administrative procedures from scratch. How would you use (or would you use) "little languages" or markup or whatever to document the rules?<br />
<br />
There is no need at all to have the rules expressed such that a rules engine could evaluate them. A human decision-maker will at all times be involved. What would be useful, however, is something to make plain what the rules in fact are.<br />
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It's a little more than that, I suppose. Beyond just making the rules themselves plain (you could do that just by rewriting them in coherent English) you want to see how they interrelate, how they depend on common factors, and permit them to be read in different ways: text, flowchart, etc..<br />
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Nate: as to your comment, the people involved are in fact quite bright. But they are busy enough without being burdened with learning a programming language, however simplified. I mean this of the actual people I know who are working with this, as well as the hypothetical legislative aide in the Liberated State of Kauai. Like, I could ask them to learn a proto-python, but is there something even simpler I could use?<br />
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Anyhow, this is all just by way of provoking some discussion. In actual fact I think the deliverables for the particular project will be much more modest than all this suggests. Joe,
It sounds like what you…tag:www.techhui.com,2009-03-24:1702911:Comment:361752009-03-24T02:36:06.361ZLaurence A. Leehttp://www.techhui.com/profile/LaurenceALee
Joe,<br />
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It sounds like what you're really looking for a "Decision Service", or more commonly called a "Rules Engine".<br />
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If you're looking for an Open-Source solution, the most common choice would be Drools (now called JBoss Rules). It's rather Spartan, but it gets the job done. If you want more polish to make rules administration easier, be prepared to drop some serious coin on a commercial product. They're well worth their asking price.<br />
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The other part of what you're looking for is considered a…
Joe,<br />
<br />
It sounds like what you're really looking for a "Decision Service", or more commonly called a "Rules Engine".<br />
<br />
If you're looking for an Open-Source solution, the most common choice would be Drools (now called JBoss Rules). It's rather Spartan, but it gets the job done. If you want more polish to make rules administration easier, be prepared to drop some serious coin on a commercial product. They're well worth their asking price.<br />
<br />
The other part of what you're looking for is considered a Workflow Management system. Check out Windows Workflow Foundation, or Microsoft BizTalk to get some ideas on how to handle the "Flowchart Process Tree" stuff.<br />
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If there's funding for the project, I'd say go with a .NET team that can do BizTalk and SharePoint for the workflow stitching and presentation, and have a look at a handful of commercial Rules Engines to handle the decision services.<br />
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Trust me, on this kind of stuff, doing it with these MS Products will get desired results faster than if you hired a Java-based team to build it from scratch or FOSS platforms. Any chance of picking out a s…tag:www.techhui.com,2009-03-24:1702911:Comment:361732009-03-24T02:24:01.233ZNate Sandershttp://www.techhui.com/profile/NateSanders
Any chance of picking out a scripting language that you know already has a code-to-flowchart generator and then teaching them a REALLY small subset of the language mostly involving conditionals and math? Tell them to use meaningful variable names. Then you can actually use the code in the webapp. It's a lot to ask, but they're supposed to be bright :)
Any chance of picking out a scripting language that you know already has a code-to-flowchart generator and then teaching them a REALLY small subset of the language mostly involving conditionals and math? Tell them to use meaningful variable names. Then you can actually use the code in the webapp. It's a lot to ask, but they're supposed to be bright :)