RE: Issue with encodingStyle

I agree with Noah's observation that we cannot and should not try to
forbid people from having structures without the encodingStyle attribute
but otherwise matching the pattern used by an encoding.

Regarding the suggestion "For (a portion of a) SOAP block or blocks to
be recognizeable as encoded, the application MUST indicate the encoding
style using the encodingStyle attribute....", I think this would be
misleading, since what it literally says is equivalent to "without the
encodingStyle attribute, an otherwise-clueless processor will not
recognize that a block is encoded in a certain way."  This is true, but
by using the capital-letters word MUST, which connotes a firm
requirement, it implies that encoding is mandatory, which is not the
literal meaning.

-----Original Message-----
From: noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com [mailto:noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 4:44 PM
To: cunnings@us.ibm.com
Cc: xml-dist-app@w3.org
Subject: RE: Issue with encodingStyle

Bob Cunnings asks:

>> What is your opinion of the proposal to change:

>> ..."SHOULD indicate their encoding style using 
>> the encodingStyle attribute"

>> to

>> ..."MUST indicate their encoding style using the 
>> encodingStyle attribute"

I think you're asking me, as you're replying to my note.  Honestly, I 
don't think that particular proposal changes things very much.  Either 
way, if the encoding is named in the attribute, generalized SOAP 
processors know about it.  Either way, if you leave it out, you have a 
perfectly legal SOAP message and the processor will take it to be 
unencoded.  How we can prohibit someone from sending something that 
appears to be encoded but really isn't, I'm not sure. 

What would make more sense to me would be:

"For (a portion of a) SOAP block or blocks to be recognizeable as
encoded, 
the application MUSTindicate the encoding style using the encodingStyle 
attribute...."  That would have some teeth and would be OK with me.  On 
the other hand, I don't have much trouble with the status quo either. 
Thanks very much.
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Noah Mendelsohn                              Voice: 1-617-693-4036
IBM Corporation                                Fax: 1-617-693-8676
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Cambridge, MA 02142
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Received on Wednesday, 6 February 2002 20:12:35 UTC