Re: Web services and the Semantic Web

> For the most part I agree that ACID isn't suitable for the Internet, but
> there are times when acidity is required, which is one reason why SOAP
> supports other protocols (e.g., JMS)that might be more suitable for ACID
> behavior.

Agreed. It's incorrect to say that ACID isn't good for the Web: it's more
accurate to say that ACID isn't good for everything and the Web probably
shows this better than any other environment has up to now. There are
businesses that will require ACID semantics for their Web applications for
very good business-level reasons, but these will probably be the niche case.
(Saying that, though, this niche case may well be the biggest revenue
generator in the short-term.)

It is also incorrect to imply that if you want ACID you need a suitable
delivery protocol (you may not have meant that and in which case I apologies
in advance). You can implement ACID transactions just as easily over HTTP as
you can over JMS. The failure characteristics may be different but at the
user-level I can even be isolated from that.

Mark.

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SENDER : Dr. Mark Little, Architect (Transactions), HP Arjuna Labs
PHONE  : +44 191 2606216, FAX : +44 191 2606250
EMAIL  : mark_little@hp.com

Received on Tuesday, 28 May 2002 05:13:33 UTC