re: FIX Repository in Access mdb?
John Greenan / Alignment Systems
31 Aug 2004 3:25AM ET
Hi,
One of the great things about FIX is that it's an open protocol, open to different interpretations and rules of engagement around a commonly understood reference point, the specification prepared by FIX Protocol Limited through the community.
So far it's not been subject to the whole anti-this, pro-that discussions that hit many open source projects (not that FIX is open source) out there. While I can see that there is some validity to suggest that using ms word is a bad idea, I think it's fair to say that it's a good word processor so why not use it?
I don't see how using ms word to communicate an xml standard impacts on the standard itself. And Access is a good database for this as it's available just about everywhere and doesn't require technical knowledge to use it - just download the file and open it. Without wanting to get all overtly techie about this, the important issue is the (FIX) message, not the medium.
Regards,
John
>
This is likely the wrong place for the subject, but Kevin provided the info on a thread on this list, so I'm putting it here initially.
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> First, is the FIX repository available publicly now? If so, where is it?
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> Second, regarding the repository, Kevin said, "The repository comes in two flavors an Access mdb file and a series of XML files." Can this be? Would the FIX folks really use an MS db for an open source (FIX) repository? With all due respect, why wouldn't a cross-platform open d-base format be used? I thought is was bad enough that the official FIX spec is distributed in a MS Word doc! Why wouldn't the open-source FIX spec be distributed via an open XML file format? I know there's people who have already had issues with NOT being able to easily and accurately parse the FIX spec out of a Word doc. Our group wouldn't even want to have to begin to do that, or would we.
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> I know there are plenty of MS users out there, but that's not the point, nor is it a debate about what platform is better. It's about FIX, an open standard. Let's face it, using MS proprieatry file formats to communicate an open xml standard doesn't make much sense. IMHO, it's contradictory. The most important thing is the principle of the matter and the message it sends.
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> I think FIX and open standards in general are the greatest thing since computers mainstreamed, not to mention the future of most development technology. I also think this might have potential to impact FIXML in some way, as we don't want MS-XML, just XML. It's a slippery slope, even if there's no negative impact right now.
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> I hope many will pipe in on this, as I'm very curious to know what others think about it!
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> Respectfully, John
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