Request for Information (RFI) - ADF Library Refactor 2020

(Link to RFI)

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June 8th, 2020

Dear Allotrope Community Member

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As you may be aware, the current ADF software library is written in Java which is the language of choice for many enterprise applications. Allotrope also supports C# as an additional transpiled version. In recent years Java and C# are being overshadowed within the data science community by other languages with a growing momentum such as Python.

In order to maintain the best product-market fit for Allotrope's Framework and as a potential long-term solution which allows the framework to scale while broadening support for other languages more easily, the Foundation would like to evaluate the technical alternatives to refactor the current ADF library written in Java. The intent is to develop a thin, efficient, portable, and easily wrappable middleware written in C++ in order to address the support for additional software languages as well as other long-term objectives such as performance and portability.

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While Allotrope is recognizing that there are several technical alternatives for the long-term refactoring of the ADF library, Allotrope would also like to evaluate short-term and intermediate technical solutions to enable the use of the ADF library with a more specific language such as Python, for different user groups such as the scientific computing community and different applications in the analytical space. 

Respondents may choose to respond to any of the alternatives and they are free to suggest their own solution. They are especially encouraged to address the shorter-term Python alternatives.

Please feel free to distribute the RFI to any relevant software vendor who may be a candidate to respond to the RFI, or potential future RFP.
We are requesting an early confirmation with regard to the intention to respond (June 15, 2020) and targeting to get the responses by the end of this month (June 30, 2020). As usual the Product Team is available for any questions and conference calls to discuss ideas.Thanks for your cooperation, and we look forward to seeing some great responses.All the best, be healthy,Matthew & Amnon