RE: Web Services Definition and XML

Dave,

 | The charter seems extremely clear that web services must be based upon
XML.
<KS>
	I reread the charter. To me the charter does not imply either that our
*definition* of web services must be based on XML not XML as the *sole*
implementation of web services.

	It only says that the set of technologies *identified* by this WG should be
based on XML. It also says that the WG does not have to design the
technologies. As an extreme case, another WG or a later version can identify
a very different stack of technologies, based on our definitions.

	In this sense, define as broadly as required and identify a set of XML
technologies to implement that definition, is our marching order. So if we
define web services as "using standard interfaces and using internet
protocols" we are covered. We need to identify WSDL and SOAP as the
description and message technologies.

	BTW, the frequency of the word XML is irrelevant here.
</KS>

cheers

 | -----Original Message-----
 | From: www-ws-arch-request@w3.org [mailto:www-ws-arch-request@w3.org]On
 | Behalf Of David Orchard
 | Sent: Monday, March 04, 2002 3:23 PM
 | To: www-ws-arch@w3.org
 | Subject: Web Services Definition and XML
 |
 |
 | I wanted to discuss a specific aspect of Web Services definition on a
 | separate thread, particularly the use of XML.
 |
 | If one takes a look at the charter of the Web Services Architecture group
 | [1], the word XML is the 4th word in the text.  The first 7 sentences
 | mention XML 7 times.  I'm counting as one the XML, XML
 | Namespaces, and XML
 | Schema fragment.
 |
 | Further, the 2nd goal is "The set of technologies identified
 | must be based
 | on XML. ".
 | The 6th bulleted goal is "The framework proposed must support the kind of
 | extensibility actually seen on the Web: disparity of document formats and
 | protocols used to communicate, mixing of XML vocabularies using XML
 | namespaces, development of solutions in a distributed
 | environment without a
 | central authority, etc. "...
 |
 | The charter seems extremely clear that web services must be
 | based upon XML.
 |
 | Now I'm a person that leans towards sometimes re-interpreting
 | charters, but
 | I draw the line in the sand on this one.  I believe that the Web Services
 | definition MUST make explicit reference to XML.  Perhaps the
 | actual bits on
 | the wire don't have to be XML - like using SSL or GZIP - but the
 | basis for
 | the inputs and outputs of the service sure have to be XML or a well
 | understood transformation.  I also include a packaging of XML
 | into something
 | like MIME or DIME as being XML based.
 |
 | Like I argued for URIs, I will also argue for XML in our
 | definition.  This
 | is a show-stopper.
 |
 | Cheers,
 | Dave
 | [1] http://www.w3.org/2002/01/ws-arch-charter
 |
 |

Received on Tuesday, 5 March 2002 00:40:06 UTC