- From: Walden Mathews <waldenm@optonline.net>
- Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 19:37:33 -0500
- To: "Champion, Mike" <Mike.Champion@SoftwareAG-USA.com>, www-ws-arch@w3.org
> > This seems close enough for our immediate purposes. Truly precise > definitions will not be nailed down EVER, because the meanings will change > as the world around us changes. Come on now, Mike, that's dodging the task. > > http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213080,00.html > > "2) In program-to-program communication, synchronous communication requires > that each end of an exchange of communication respond in turn without > initiating a new communication. A typical activity that might use a > synchronous protocol would be a transmission of files from one point to > another. As each transmission is received, a response is returned indicating > success or the need to resend. Each successive transmission of data requires > a response to the previous transmission before a new one can be initiated. > Synchronous program communication is contrasted with asynchronous program > communication. " I've been waiting to hear Arkin's objection. By this definition, TCP can't be considered synchronous, nor could any sliding window protocol. > > " In computer programs, asynchronous operation means that a process operates > independently of other processes, whereas synchronous operation means that > the process runs only as a result of some other process being completed or > handing off operation. A typical activity that might use a synchronous > protocol would be a transmission of files from one point to another. As each > transmission is received, a response is returned indicating success or the > need to resend. Each successive transmission of data requires a response to > the previous transmission before a new one can be initiated. " > I'd be surprised if the above helped anyone understand the architecture document or the usage scenarios, but what do I know? The first part begs a definition of "independently of other processes". Clearly, one thing that communicating processes do is synchronize. Where does that leave us? WM
Received on Monday, 24 February 2003 19:37:44 UTC