NEW ISSUE: Confusing use of "policy expression"

(I guess this is editorial; but I suppose we can retire issues as  
quickly as we raise them :))

Description:

Section 1.1 reads:
	The goal of Web Services Policy 1.5 - Framework is to provide the  
mechanisms needed to enable Web services applications to specify  
policy information. Specifically, this specification defines the  
following:

	* An XML Infoset called a policy expression that contains domain- 
specific, Web Service policy information.
	* A core set of constructs to indicate how choices and/or  
combinations of domain-specific policy assertions apply in a
	   Web services environment.

Section 2.4:

[Definition: A policy expression is an XML Infoset representation of  
a policy, either in a normal form or in an equivalent compact form. ]

I guess the problem really is in the goals. (I guess I am  
wordsmithing...oh well). A policy expression does contain domain  
specific policy information, but it also contains constructs  
combining domain-specific policy assertions so I'm unclear as to what  
the point is of mentioning the containing domain-specific information  
is.

Justification:

The goals just seems sloppy, uninformative, and confusing, not to  
mention a bit specific. Either we should drop this section or do  
better. I'm fine with either.

Proposal:

So, there are two alternatives

1) Just drop it. It's really not needed.
2) Improve it. Here's a first cut:

	The goal of Web Services Policy 1.5 - Framework is to provide the  
mechanisms needed to enable Web services applications to specify  
policy information. Specifically, this specification defines the  
following:

	* A framework for domain specific assertions about the prescribed  
behavior of a Web Service. [I guess it could be any Web Service  
"actor", i.e., client, server, intermediary]
	* A set of operators for combining and otherwise qualifying domain  
specific assertions into policies
	* An XML infoset for the concrete expression of such policies.

(Is there anything else we're trying to accomplish? Frankly, I don't  
see the point of listing "goals" that we trivially accomplish by the  
nature of the spec. This feels more like a table of contents, or a  
guide to parts of the specification.)

Cheers,
Bijan.

Received on Thursday, 13 July 2006 05:48:08 UTC