Re: Web service definition

On Monday, August 12, 2002, at 04:01  AM, J.P. Martin-Flatin wrote:

>
> Geoff has a point: the initial sentence is grammatically incorrect 
> and hence semantically ambiguous. It needs to be rewritten.
>
> Mark has a point that that the interfaces are not necessarily 
> defined in terms of messages.

Well now..... I included the reference to "messages" in deference to the
earlier definition. I have no problem with dropping it, but I do 
wonder if
we shouldn't say *something* about the nature of the "interfaces 
and bindings"
beyond the fact that they are "defined using XML artifacts".

> Arguably, Mark also has another point: "transported" may imply 
> that we have only a transport protocol (layer 4) beneath, with no 
> application protocol (layer 7) in between.
>
> To address these issues, I suggest the following definition:
>
> "A Web service is a software application identified by a URI, 
> whose interfaces and bindings are defined using XML artifacts. Its 
> definition can be discovered by other software applications via 
> XML-based messages transferred by internet protocols. These 
> applications may then interact with the web service in a manner 
> prescribed by its definition."

Fine. "Transferred", "conveyed", and "transported" all mean much 
the same,
so if "transported" is deemed to have unfortunate implications I'm 
happy to
go with another synonym. I would still prefer to replace "via" with
something a little more precise. (I find "via" to be grammatically 
"sloppy":
a sort of half-preposition, half-verb!) Maybe "by the exchange 
of".  And finally
we should be consistent about the capitalization of "[wW]eb 
[sS]ervice". Viz.

"A Web service is a software application identified by a URI, whose 
interfaces and
bindings are defined using XML artifacts. Its definition can be 
discovered by other
software applications by the exchange of XML-based messages 
transferred by internet
protocols. These applications may then interact with the Web 
service in a manner
prescribed by its definition."

Geoff Arnold
Sun Microsystems Laboratories