Re: Web service definition

On Sunday, August 11, 2002, at 10:56  AM, Mark Baker wrote:
> Not me.  It's extraordinarily vague, as Paul also noted.
>

OK, please tell me exactly how my definition is any more vague than
the earlier version. Here they are side by side:

OLD: Definition: A Web service is a software application identified by a
      URI, whose interfaces and binding [sic] are capable of being 
defined,
      described and discovered by XML artifacts and supports direct
      interactions with other software applications using XML based
      messages via internet-based protocols

NEW: Definition: A Web service is a software application identified by a
      URI, whose interfaces and bindings are defined in terms of XML 
based
      messages transported by internet protocols. This definition, 
which is
      described using XML artifacts, can be discovered by other software
      applications, which may then interact with the web service in
      a manner prescribed by its definition.

The only difference which might change the semantics (rather simply 
making
the thing grammatical and unambiguous: for example, removing the 
conflation
of descriptive and active "artifacts") is the deletion of the phrase
"direct interactions". I don't know what the original author(s) might
have meant by that term, but most of the possible interpretations
imply some rather unfortunate limitations on the scope of web services.
(For example, it might be read as disallowing proxy or broker patterns.)