JDF BASICS -- It's Just the Ticket

In addition, the specification defines operations and proposes processes that shouldn't be included in such a standard, points out the technology analyst. "For example, people who try to implement the Spawn/Merge capability deserve what they get," he says.

According to the spec, "Spawning is the process of extracting a subnode from a job and creating a new JDF document that contains all of the information needed to process the subnode. Merging is the process of recombining the information from a spawned job part with the original JDF job, even after both documents have evolved independently. This mechanism is intended to make it possible to submit job parts to distributed devices, other work areas, or even outside work centers."