RE: Web service definition

Since we are once again talking about the definition of web services, may I
once again express my reservations about using the word "artifacts".  If
this has any highly specific technical meaning I am unaware of it, and just
taking the "good old English" definition of the word I believe that it is
inappropriate in this context.  Look it up -- you will find phrases like
"especially of primitive human workmanship" and "structure ... due to death
... not present during life".  Or, in more technical definitions, "A defect
or distortion of the image ...".  In other words, it always seems to carry
the connotation of being either a remnant or a mistake.  I don't think that
this is appropriate.

Could we possibly use the word "message"?  If that is not OK, why not?
Perhaps the answer to that would suggest something less confusing than
"artifact".

-----Original Message-----
From: Geoff Arnold [mailto:Geoff.Arnold@sun.com] 
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 8:41 AM
To: www-ws-arch@w3.org
Cc: Kate Stout
Subject: Re: Web service definition




On Monday, August 12, 2002, at 09:05  AM, Christopher B Ferris wrote:

> Hmmm... I hadn't thought that my proposal only addressed how discovery 
> takes place. In fact, I had thought that there shouldn't be much 
> specificity in addressing how discovery takes place.
>
> Allow me to try again with a slight edit to my previous proposal:
>
>        Definition: A Web service is a software application
> identified by a
>        URI, whose interfaces and bindings are defined and described
>        using XML artifacts. This definition can be discovered by 
> other software
>       applications. These applications may then interact with the 
> Web
>          service, through the exchange of XML based messages via 
> internet
>          protocols, in a manner prescribed by its definition.
>
> Again, I don't think that we necessarily want to narrow the
> possibilities
> of how the description/definition is discovered.

Next thing you'll be proposing standard LDAP schemas for WSDL! Anyway, this
looks OK. A couple more tweaks:
(1) Lose the "via".
(2) Drop "exchange", since it would seem to disallow one-way interaction
     patterns.
(3) Change "This definition" to "Its definition" for grammatical 
precision.
     ("Its" refers back to the service; "This" has no clear referent.)

Definition:
A Web service is a software application identified by a
URI, whose interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML
artifacts. Its definition can be discovered by other software applications.
These applications may then interact with the Web 
service in
a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML messages conveyed by
internet protocols.

Received on Monday, 12 August 2002 23:10:36 UTC