Wording of Part1 2.3.1.1 Operation Style

I have a small follow up suggestion to the wording of Part1, sec 2.3.1.1.

2.3.1.1 Operation Style says:

[[
If the {style} property of an Interface Operation component has a value 
then that value (a URI) implies the rules that were used to define the 
{body} properties of all {message reference}s within that component. Note 
that the property MAY not have any value. If this property has a given 
value, then the rules implied by that value (URI) MUST be followed. 
Furthermore, this property represents an OPTIONAL hint to additional 
information which MAY be ignored by a processor.
]]

I suggest deleting the last sentence, i.e., "Furthermore, this property 
represents an OPTIONAL hint to additional information which MAY be ignored 
by a processor.".  I think that sentence adds more confusion than clarity, 
because the previous sentence says "MUST" and this sentence says "OPTIONAL".

Why isn't that sentence needed? Because the sentence is talking about what 
a processor may *do* with the information it gets from a conforming WSDL 
document, which is not our business say.  In other words, there is no need 
to say that a processor is free to ignore some particular information in a 
conforming WSDL document, because a processor is *always* free to ignore 
information that it doesn't need.  We can define what it means for a WSDL 
document to *be* conformant, but we cannot dictate what processors *do* 
when presented with conforming WSDL documents.  That's up to them.


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

Received on Thursday, 9 October 2003 02:54:21 UTC