Sync Definition #3

I think that this definition is different enough, and succinct enough,
to deserve its own number.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher B Ferris [mailto:chrisfer@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 12:04 PM
To: David Orchard
Cc: www-ws-arch@w3.org; www-ws-arch-request@w3.org
Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)



Appologies if these definitions have not already been proposed, the
thread is simply too long for 
me to catch up:) 

synchronous message exchange (applies to oneway as well as
request/response) requires that both 
sender and receiver, or initiator and respondant, processes are
running/active at the same time as the 
exchange takes place. In the case of request/response, the exchange is
synchronous if both sender and receiver 
remain in the running/active state for both the request and response. 

asynchronous message exchange (also applies to oneway or request
response) does not require, 
but does not preclude, that both sender and receiver, or initiator and
respondant, processes are 
running/active at the same time as the exchange takes place. It typcally
requires some form of mediation 
between the sender and receiver such as a message queue. 

I believe that we could extend these definitions to whole conversations
as well. 

Cheers, 

Christopher Ferris
Architect, Emerging e-business Industry Architecture
email: chrisfer@us.ibm.com
phone: +1 508 234 3624