An analysis of mustUnderstand and related issues

On this week's teleconference, the group requested that I prepare an
informal analysis of some of the issues relating to mustUnderstand, message
path, etc..  Attached is my first cut.  As they say, I didn't have enough
time to make it short.  I also ran out of time to really proofread it and
polish, but I think it's in good enough shape to convey some ideas.

Seriously, I felt that it was important to first specified as precisely as
I could what I thought the current SOAP version 1.1 specification does and
does not imply with respect to these issues.  That turned out to take quite
a bit of text.  I find it to be useful background, but if you're in a rush
you may wish to skip or skim that.

Anyway, I am not wedded to any of the proposals in the attached.  They are
intended primarily to clarify the relationship that I see between actors,
message paths, message patterns, and ensuring that important processing
does indeed occur at the right time along the way.

I will not be working this weekend, and am off to the W3C schema workgroup
meeting Monday through Wednesday of next week.  Presumably, this note will
generate some discussion (if anyone manages to read it), but my involvement
will be spotty for the next few days.  Note that, due to the schema
meetings, I may or may not make next Wednesdays called.

Both files have the same content.  The .pdf formats a bit better, though
IE5 does an OK job with the html.  I'd like to thank Henrik for reviewing
some early partial drafts.  I doubt that he would agree with all that I've
written, but he certainly helped to catch some errors.   I hope this helps
move the discussion ahead.

(See attached file: mustUnderstand.pdf)(See attached file:
MustUnderstand.html)

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Noah Mendelsohn                                    Voice: 1-617-693-4036
Lotus Development Corp.                            Fax: 1-617-693-8676
One Rogers Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
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