Dear Rich,
The problem is not working on 30 year old code. That probably stopped years ago, and the software would have been abandoned if it did not work, so it is of sufficient quality doing something rather mundane, that it does not need working on. The problem is how do you get the data out of this system and into the systems you need to decommission and deconstruct your nuclear reactor? How would you know how to interpret anything you could get out? The same would apply if you were going to replace the software of course.
You are not trying to tack ontologies on top. Unless you had developed an ontology 30 years ago, you would not have captured the semantics of the system outside the heads of those that did the development, so you would not have access to those semantics. So you need to develop an ontology of a system so that at some later date you can make use of the data in ways that were not anticipated when the system was built.
Regards
Matthew West
Information Junction
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From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rich Cooper
Sent: 29 February 2012 19:03
To: '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] What goes into a Lexicon?
Dear Matthew,
My advice to anyone working on programs that were written thirty years ago is to find another job. The technology is outdated, the tools have become much, much better, languages are more expressive, and subsystems can be licensed far more effectively now. My advice to managers who have a thirty year old software system of significant size is to muddle along as best they can while building an entirely new replacement using modern technology.
The only value in creaking along with thirty year old technology is in hoping it will go away soon and be replaced by something more functional.
In any case, the sunk cost of that 30 year old project has no current value other than avoiding replacement costs. So why try to tack ontologies on top of something with a very limited lifespan? I see ontologies, if they have a place at all, as newly emerging solutions to yet unidentified problems. Our concern should be to identify exactly which kinds of problems can be solved with ontologies. Only then will they have clear value.
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
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From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Matthew West
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:48 AM
To: '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] What goes into a Lexicon?
Dear Rich,
My experience in software development in teams is that the vocabulary used is absolutely essential to the two programmers discussing their current issue of interfacing with each other. Whether other programmers use the same word or not isn’t significant to them; they are not writing programs to be readable until possibly after the said programs actually work. So the problem is already solved before any ontology is used, dictated, or agreed to. Then there’s time to adjust words to fit some manager’s choice of vocabulary, but that is AFTER the problem of a working program has already been solved.
And what about the situation when program A was written 30 years ago to support a nuclear power plant, the writer of which has since died, and the writer of the second programme now has to write interfaces to programs needed to decommission that nuclear power plant over the next 20 years.
Regards
Matthew West
Information Junction
Tel: +44 1489 880185
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
Skype: dr.matthew.west
matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in England and Wales No. 6632177.
Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE.