July 01, 2005, 10:55 AM — I am six foot three (and a bit) tall. How tall is that in meters? I weight just under fifteen stone. What is that in pounds? What is that in kilograms? Today, it is about 14 degrees Centigrade. What is that in Fahrenheit?
Each of the above questions has a simple answer. You simply get your hands on the formula that describes how one unit of measurement is related to another. Then you plug in your numbers and out pops the answer. Simple. So simple that, by and large, the world looks like it will never consolidate all the various ways of measuring things into a single, non-overlapping set. There is too much history, too much investment and the conversion too simple to warrant any sleepless nights. Granted there are exceptions. The spread of the metric system for example.
The sheer volume of different measuring systems out there, across cultures, across industries means that we do conversions very regularly. These days, we have computers to help us do the conversions so now life is even easier in our conversion culture. Unfortunately, we have a tendency to think that the 'units of measurement' approach to conversions is a panacea. Try these 'conversions' for size:
- I write my blockbuster novels in Adobe FrameMaker. What would they look like in Microsoft Word?
- I run my business calculations in Oracle Financials. What would they look like in Microsoft Excel?
- I write my webapps in Jython. What would they look like in PHP?
These sure look like conversions don't they? Let's just plug the data in at one end, apply the conversion formula and out will pop the answer, right?
Wrong. 999 times out of 1,000 this is wrong. Not only is it wrong but it can be spectacularly, career-definingly, wallet-piercingly wrong.
Conversions of one form of digital data to another form of digital data are simply not, by and large, formulaic.
Hidden behind most real world conversions of digital format A to digital format B is a painful truth. Simply put, more often than not, it is not possible to take everything you have in the source data/application logic and produce corresponding data/application logic in the destination format. Behind every promise of a seamless conversion lies an ugly reality of loss - of data or of functionality or of both.
Bear that in mind the next time someone tells you that they will simply 'convert' or 'export' your data out of its existing application into some bright, shiny new application.
It might be that simple but it probably won't. Not by a long shot.
