Second STRAW POLL on Synchronous/Asynchronous

SECOND STRAW POLL ON SYNCHRONOUS/ASYNCHRONOUS

The purpose of this straw poll is to help the working group converge
on definitions for "synchronous" and "asynchronous".  Again, this is
a straw poll, so the results are merely informative -- not binding.
Any decision will be made by the group as a whole.

This poll includes 3 new proposed wordings extracted from the mailing
list, along with the top 3 definitions from the previous poll -- 6 choices
in all.  It also includes a "cannot live with" voting option.

DEADLINE
Ballots must be submitted by Thursday March 20 at 23:00 EST (UTC-5) (
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=20&month=3&year=2003&hour=23&min=0&sec=0&p1=43 
)

HOW TO VOTE
Erase everything above the top "-=-=-=-" line and erase everything
below the bottom "-=-=-=-" line.  Do not erase anything between these
lines.

Indicate your top three choices.
In the brackets next to your most preferred choice, place a 1.  Place
a 2 in the brackets next to your next choice.  Continue till
you use 3 for your last choice.  Leave other choices
blank.  Start with 1, don't skip any numbers, don't repeat.

If you CANNOT LIVE WITH a particular choice, place a -1 in the brackets.
You may indicate -1 for as many choices as necessary.

Then mail the ballot to: member-wsa-ballots@w3.org .  DO NOT SEND YOUR
BALLOT TO THE PUBLIC LIST.  Just Replying to this
message should work, but check the "To:" line.  Don't worry about spacing
of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your reply inserts.

-=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
synchronous Ballot    <FB-sync2> (Don't remove this marker)

[1-3]  Choice
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[   ] anne-1    (see definition below)
[   ] mikec-2   (see definition below)
[   ] walden-2  (see definition below)
[   ] geoff-1   (see definition below)
[   ] ugo-2c    (see definition below)
[   ] ferris-1  (see definition below)
-=-=-=-=-=- Don't Delete Anything Between These Lines =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Anything else may be rejected by the vote counting program.
You should see your vote in 
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/member-wsa-ballots/
Only one vote per person.


==================================================================
=====================  Candidate Definitions =====================
==================================================================

Definition anne-1
http//lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Mar/0134.html
Synchronous
An interaction (one-way, two-way, or multi-way) is synchronous if the 
sender and receiver must communicate at the same time (the receiver must be 
available to receive the message when the sender sends it). A one-way 
message is asynchronous if the sender and receiver do not need to 
communicate at the same time (the message may be stored and delivered at a 
later time).

--------
Definition mikec-2
http//lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Mar/0146.html
Asynchronous
A request/response interaction is said to be asynchronous
when the request and response are chronologically and procedurally
decoupled. In other words, the client agent can process the response
at some indeterminate point
in the future when its existence is discovered, for example, by polling,
notification by receipt of another message, etc.

Synchronous
A request/response interaction is said to be synchronous when
the client agent must be available to receive and process the response
message from the time it issues the initial request until it is
actually received or some failure
condition is determined. The exact meaning of "available to receive the
message" depends on the characteristics of the client agent (including the
transfer protocol it uses); it may, but does not necessarily, imply tight
time synchronization, blocking a thread, etc.
]]

--------
Definition walden-2
http//lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Mar/0114.html
Synchronous
A request/response interaction is said to be synchronous when the request 
and response are chronologically coupled. In other words, the client agent 
has to "wait" for the response once it issues the initial request. The 
exact meaning of "wait" depends on the characteristics of the client agent 
(including the transfer protocol it uses). Examples include waiting for the 
response in a different thread, on a different socket or end-point, or by 
polling the server.

Asynchronous
A request/response interaction that does not meet the constraints of a 
synchronous interaction (above) is said to be asynchronous.

--------
Definition geoff-1
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Mar/0029.html
Synchronous
A message exchange pattern (MEP) is a formal description of how messages
are exchanged between two or more parties in support of some application
purpose. The pattern may define a single message sequence, or may
correspond to a "family" of sequences by including repeated or nested
sequences. An MEP is synchronous if the specification of the message
sequence(s) includes elements in which the transmission of a message
is dependent on either (a) the reception of some other message(s), or
(b) coordination based on a common clock. An MEP is asynchronous if it
includes no such dependencies.

--------
Definition ugo-2c
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Feb/0386.html
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.

--------
Definition ferris-1
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-ws-arch/2003Feb/0437.html
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.


[End]



-- 
David Booth
W3C Fellow / Hewlett-Packard
Telephone: +1.617.253.1273

Received on Tuesday, 18 March 2003 16:20:52 UTC