Profiles

According to ISO TR-10000, a profile is:

"A set of one or more base standards, and, where applicable, the identification of chosen classes, subsets, options and parameters of those base standards, necessary for accomplishing a particular function."

SPIRIT profiles are created because they help in meeting the SPIRIT goals of portability, interoperability and modularity. SPIRIT profiles can be characterised as selections from and refinements to existing specifications. The features of SPIRIT profiles are based on user business requirements.

SPIRIT distinguishes two types of profile:

• specification profiles

• component profiles.

Specification profiles are adaptations of one or more specifications of the same type; for example, ISO/IEC SQL and XPG4 SQL. A specification profile is used in place of the specification(s) it profiles. A specification profile is usually created to provide greater source code portability and/or greater interoperability, by selecting or restricting options. SPIRIT Issue 3.0 defines three specification profiles:

• C

• COBOL

• SQL.

Component profiles are created so that a vendor can create an implementation of a component. Component profiles consist of a set of:

• specifications

• specification profiles

• other component profiles

• sets of constraints.

Note that component profiles can be made up of other component profiles.

SPIRIT resists using any other model or framework beyond the concepts outlined above in Platform Model and Classification and Use of Specifications . Therefore, components (the "boxes" of functionality one might find offered by vendors) have not been defined using any model or framework. Instead, SPIRIT Service Providers and vendors have defined component profiles that they believe can be used to build useful and viable components, driven by the SPIRIT goals of portability, interoperability and modularity. Component profiles are particularly useful to vendors in outlining likely composites of functionality required by Service Providers.

SPIRIT profiles are independent of any specific implementation; it is presumed that there may be multiple suppliers for a product that conforms to the referenced specifications and profiles.

SPIRIT Issue 3.0 Profiles

The following profiles are defined for SPIRIT Issue 3.0:

• Language profiles

  Specification profiles for the languages C, COBOL and SQL. See Part 6, Languages.

• Source code transfer profiles

  Component profiles that provide mechanisms to port applications between implementations. See Part 5, Application Portability.

• Inter-language portability profiles

  Component profiles that aid portability for languages that call other languages. See Part 5, Application Portability.

• Protocol profiles

  Component profiles, each usually containing protocols at several layers of the OSI Reference Model, that help ensure interoperability among communicating systems. See Profile . Protocol suites that can serve as the basis for the definition of protocol profiles are in Part 3, Communications.

• Management profiles

  Component profiles used to ensure interoperability and manageability of SPIRIT general-purpose platforms and networks. See Part 4, Distributed Systems Management.