Fwd: Re: new editor's draft of WSA available

Chris,

I sent these earlier to you directly and didn't see a response, so I wasn't 
sure if you got them.  The first suggestion (on section 3.1) is not 
terribly important, but I think would be good.  The second (on section 
3.1.1) is much more important, because I think the current explanation is 
pretty confusing, and I think it's pretty prominent.

Thanks.

>Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 18:38:57 -0400
>To: "Christopher B Ferris" <chrisfer@us.ibm.com>
>From: David Booth <dbooth@w3.org>
>Subject: Re: new editor's draft of WSA available
>Cc: W3C WS Architecture <www-ws-arch@w3.org>
>
>Some comments on the current Arch draft at
>http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/2002/ws/arch/wsa/wd-wsa-arch.html
>
>Section 3.1 ". . . The service requestor uses a find operation to retrieve 
>the service description locally or from the discovery agency (i.e. a 
>registry or respository) and uses the service description to bind with the 
>service provider and invoke or interact with the web service implementation."
>
>This doesn't sound like it allows the possibility of a Service Requester 
>obtaining the service description directly from the Service Requester, 
>even though that possibility is made clearer later on.  I think it is 
>important to point out more clearly here that the Service Requester could 
>obtain the service description directly from the Service Provider.  I 
>suggest the following wording change:
>
>"The Service Requester obtains the service description either locally, 
>directly from the Service Provider (if it is already known to the Service 
>Requester), or it uses a find operation to retrieve the service 
>description from a discovery agency (i.e. a registry or respository).  The 
>Service Requester then uses the service description to bind with the 
>Service Provider and invoke or interact with the Web Service implementation."
>
>--------
>
>Section 3.1.1. I have two suggestions on this section:
>
>(a) The current definition of "The Service" is pretty confusing:
>". . . The Service: Whereas a web service is an interface described by a 
>service description, its implementation is the service. A service is a 
>software module deployed on network accessible platforms provided by the 
>service provider. It exists to be invoked by or to interact with a service 
>requestor. It may also function as a requestor, using other web services 
>in its implementation."
>
>I would suggest the following definition:
>"The Web Service (or "Service") is a software module that is deployed on 
>network accessible platforms provided by the Service Provider. It 
>implements the interface defined by the Service Description, and exists to 
>be invoked by or to interact with a Service Requester.  It may also 
>function as a Service Requester, in a peer-to-peer relationship."
>
>(b) It bothers me to see both "The Service" and "The Service Description" 
>in the same category called "Components", since one is an agent (or role) 
>and the other is an artifact (or document).  I suggest changing the title 
>of 3.1.1 to "Data" and moving the definition of "The Service" to section 
>3.1.2 as a sub-definition under the definition of "Service Provider", 
>since the Service is a part of (or owned by) the Service Provider.
>
>--------
>
>Section 3.1.2 The term "Service Provider" is defined to mean two very 
>different things -- as the "owner of the service" and as a "service 
>execution environment" -- and I think that introduces unnecessary 
>confusion.  We should use different terms to refer to these different 
>things.  The same problem exists for the term "Service 
>Requester".  Furthermore, it seems strange to say that the "Service 
>Provider" is an "execution environment", while the "Service Requester" is 
>an "application".
>
>I suggest using the following terms:
>         "Provider Entity" to refer to the owner of the service.
>         "Requester Entity" to refer to the owner of the client.
>         "Provider execution environment" to refer to the service's 
> execution environment (if needed).
>         "Requester execution environment" to refer to the client's 
> execution environment (if needed).
>         "Requester Agent" to refer to the runtime application that the 
> Requester Entity uses to invoke a Web Service.
>         "Provider Agent" to refer to the runtime application that the 
> Requester uses to implement the desired service.  ("Provider Agent" would 
> therefore be a synonym for "Web Service".)
>
>I am not married to these particular terms, but I do think it is 
>important: (a) to use different terms for different concepts; and (b) to 
>be consistent in our terminology.
>
>Thanks,
>
>--
>David Booth
>W3C Fellow / Hewlett-Packard
>Telephone: +1.617.253.1273

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

Received on Thursday, 31 October 2002 17:13:47 UTC