RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

+1

arkin
  -----Original Message-----
  From: www-ws-arch-request@w3.org [mailto:www-ws-arch-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Christopher B Ferris
  Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:04 AM
  To: David Orchard
  Cc: www-ws-arch@w3.org; www-ws-arch-request@w3.org
  Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)



  Appologies if these definitions have not already been proposed, the thread
is simply too long for
  me to catch up:)

  synchronous message exchange (applies to oneway as well as
request/response) requires that both
  sender and receiver, or initiator and respondant, processes are
running/active at the same time as the
  exchange takes place. In the case of request/response, the exchange is
synchronous if both sender and receiver
  remain in the running/active state for both the request and response.

  asynchronous message exchange (also applies to oneway or request response)
does not require,
  but does not preclude, that both sender and receiver, or initiator and
respondant, processes are
  running/active at the same time as the exchange takes place. It typcally
requires some form of mediation
  between the sender and receiver such as a message queue.

  I believe that we could extend these definitions to whole conversations as
well.

  Cheers,

  Christopher Ferris
  Architect, Emerging e-business Industry Architecture
  email: chrisfer@us.ibm.com
  phone: +1 508 234 3624


        "David Orchard" <dorchard@bea.com>
        Sent by: www-ws-arch-request@w3.org
        02/27/2003 11:41 AM
       To <www-ws-arch@w3.org>
              cc
              Subject RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)







  What classifies as "wait for a response"?  I typically think of a
synchronous definition as "a programmatic flow of control on the sender
effectively does nothing but wait for a response after sending it's
request".  And before everybody goes gaga over showing edge cases that are
asynch that have flow of control, or multiple flows of control that are
synch, that's not the real issue.  The point is that synchronicity typically
has the notion of *something* blocking and waiting for the response.

  Another approach is to couple synchronicity with connections.  So
synchronous is where the request and response flow forwards and backwards
over the same virtual connection between the sender and receiver.  Of
course, it's possible to have synch interactions over non-synch connections,
which is why I think that synchronicity is more of a feature of program
logic than bits on the wire.

  Hey look, textual suggestion and only 8 sentences of prose.

  Cheers,
  Dave
  -----Original Message-----
  From: www-ws-arch-request@w3.org [mailto:www-ws-arch-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Assaf Arkin
  Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 10:42 PM
  To: Walden Mathews; Ugo Corda; www-ws-arch@w3.org
  Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

  I just love permutations ;-)

  Seriously. In order to say that something is synchronous you need to say
what it is that's synchronous.

  The definition given below only describes a synchronous (request/response)
operation but doesn't describe an asynchronous (input-only or output-only)
operation, so it's only half way there. We still need to describe
asynchronous operations.

  And it describes the operation based on how the protocol works, which is
interesting and important, but still says nothing about the operation
itself.

  arkin

   -----Original Message-----
  From: Walden Mathews [mailto:waldenm@optonline.net]
  Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 7:29 PM
  To: Assaf Arkin; Ugo Corda; www-ws-arch@w3.org
  Subject: Re: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

  Arkin,

  I don't understand where your fascination with these permutations
  is coming from.  I thought the goal was to define the two terms, one
  definition each, and let it go at that (if possible).

  Walden
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Assaf Arkin
  To: Ugo Corda ; www-ws-arch@w3.org
  Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 3:51 PM
  Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

  Actually, yours can be easily phrased in terms of mine:

  A synchronous interaction (= reqeust/response) is communicated
asynchronously when the request and response are chronologically decoupled.
In other words ...

  A synchronous interaction is communicated synchronoulsy if the reverse
could be said.

  Which of course begs the question, what about an asynchronous interaction.
Say I just send a message but don't expect a response?

  An asynchronous interaction (= send or receive) is communicated
asynchronoulsy when the sender does not have to wait for the receiver to
receive the message.

  An asynchronous interaction is communicated synchronoulsy if the reverse
could be said.

  arkin
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Ugo Corda [mailto:UCorda@SeeBeyond.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 12:46 PM
  To: Assaf Arkin; www-ws-arch@w3.org
  Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

  Well, it's a matter of definitions, and evidently yours does not
correspond to mine. I hope people will vote soon so that we can put this
issue behind ...

  Ugo
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Assaf Arkin [mailto:arkin@intalio.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 12:15 PM
  To: Ugo Corda; www-ws-arch@w3.org
  Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

  I think you have just defined a synchronous interaction (request/response,
see formal definition) in terms of an asynchronous transport (i.e. one that
does send and receive actions independently).

  arkin
  -----Original Message-----
  From: www-ws-arch-request@w3.org [mailto:www-ws-arch-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Ugo Corda
  Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 7:36 AM
  To: Ugo Corda; www-ws-arch@w3.org
  Subject: RE: Sync Definition #2 (corrected)

  Asynchronous:
  A request/response interaction is said to be asynchronous when the request
and response are chronologically decoupled. In other words, the client agent
does not have to "wait" for the response once it issues the initial request.
The exact meaning of "not having to wait" depends on the characteristics of
the client agent (including the transfer protocol it uses). Examples include
receiving the response on a different thread, on a different socket, on a
different end-point, by polling the server, etc.

  Synchronous:
  The opposite of asynchronous.