| Why InterNEDI ?
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We at KrantzKloof Software have been involved with communication software and systems for over twenty years, so we've seen quite a few systems come and go.
What influenced the way we designed InterNEDI ?
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| Email | Email is undoubtedly the "Killer App" of the Internet. It is the most widely used of all services connected with the Internet. However, it does suffer somewhat from the fact that it has evolved from earlier, simpler messaging systems and was never designed from the ground up.
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| FTP | FTP is also a very widely used protocol (it's the one you use every time you download a program or file from a website) but it too has evolved over the years and has its own shortcomings.
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| Combination | We looked at these two means of data transfer and thought — why can't there be a single system which will enable you both to send a file to another person (as with email) and to leave it there for any number of people to download (as with FTP)? This system would combine the directness of email with the broadcasting ability of FTP. In considering data communications, we went back to first principles and decided to limit ourselves to store-and-forward systems, i.e. any system where data is sent somewhere and left for the receiver to fetch at a later time.
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| Mappings | Within any system, there are basically four methods of communicating: One-to-One, One-to-Many, Many-to-One, and Many-to-Many. We created InterNEDI to do all four in a single system.
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| Permissions | We also looked at the issue of permissions — who can do what. We decided to build a system that was single and homogenous where senders and receivers can both have read and write permission. With Email, everyone (the entire world, in fact) has write permission (can send to you), but only you have read permission. With FTP you are the only one who has write permission, but everyone else has read permission. InterNEDI combines the two.
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| All in one | And that is what InterNEDI is! It combines the one-to-one and queueing ability of email with the leave-a-file-for-all ability of FTP. More than that, it actually meshes them together, so that you can send a file TO a specific user AND leave it there for others to get as well.
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| Extras | In addition to the strong points of Email and FTP, we also decided to include useful functions that are not normally found in either system such as automating data transfer tasks, charging your own users for sending/receiving, and many others too numerous to mention here. See List of Major Features.
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| EDI | Finally, we set out to make something that would be ideal for EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), hence the name InterNEDI. EDI refers to the entire system of transferring electronic documents between entities doing business with each other. It eliminates paperwork and postal delays and increases reliability, accountability and ease of access to status information.
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| Name | Soon after we started, we realised that InterNEDI would have far wider applications than just EDI, but we liked the name, so it stuck.
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