Jerry,

>>Jerry,
>>
>>>>Renoir,
>>>>
>>>>>>Does that help?
>>>>>
>>>>>Yes, it does... I'm still unsure about taking this piece of the contract on though. How is all this different from (something very simple like) creating a flat file in an app, transfering the file to the destination server and having an app on the receiving end read the file? Is that EDI, but without all the bells and whistles (and intermediaries)? If so, then I've been doing a form of EDI for 12 years. That's alittle tongue-in-cheek, but it sounds like the EDI software/standards are just checks and balances to make sure that everything is in sync... Is that somewhat true?
>>>>
>>>>Nope.. EDI is a very complex undertaking and the formatting of EDI is what gets complex as there are so many variables & variations.
>>>>
>>>>The manuals ,which define each document ans its formatting rules, alone cost something like US$3,000.
>>>
>>>The guy in the cube next to me writes our EDI stuff. He uses VFP and codes the EDI script by hand.
>>
>><g>
>>
>>Do you supply the Anacin? <g>
>
>Darrell is a pretty sharp cookie! I asked him yesterday about the degree of difficulty and he said it was a no-brainer. ??? That could mean he is a very, very intelligent guy, or his use of EDI is simplistic. ??? Or both.
>
>What little I've worked with it seemed easy enough. A former client who asked me to help him a little while back uses the ANSIX12/DNS medical formats and while there are a lot of them (because there are a lot of cataloged medical procedures) figuring out which to use is sort of like using a field guide to plants... a set of yes/no questions leading you down a binary tree to a single conclusion.

Yeah.. Easy as in like being able to hit a little ball into a little hole in the ground... <g> IOW, there's a lot more going on than most folks realize. Most of it IMO is probbaly not a lot more complex that what most of us do. It's just that there are, as you suggested, so many possible permutations to where you want to go that the act of absorbing all that knowledge/experience/wisdom is what makes this as daunting as it is.

Your colleague Darrell has the advantage of constant exposure I'd think and as such, you bet, it's easy. It'd be the same for you or me I suppose. To paraphrase an old saying and perhaps make a really lousy pun, "Familiarity breeds content". <g>