xml-dev - RE: Microsoft's DISCO proposal and XML packaging

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

My system won't let me have the SCL document, so I 
can't look at that right now.  The rest of this is 
interesting for contract based services.  Does SCL 
include negotiation or does it only enable a contract for a 
pre-specified service with non-negotiable terms? 
IOW, to what degree and by what means can a service 
be customized?

Since I don't have the schema for the discovery 
vocabulary, I can't assume much about the typing 
of the links defined for it.  They appear to be 
simple links.  They don't appear to be controversial 
with regard to an XLink definition but I may be 
missing something.  I agree that XLink specification 
is useful but given the paucity of implementations, 
may not be that useful at this time and they may 
want to move forward.

On the surface, this appears to define a clear 
algorithm for the discovery behavior insofar as 
the service can be found, and a means to bind to 
some part of that.  Further, it provides a means 
to specify the binding if it is known apriori 
(without opening the document).

So, they seem to be trying to define very basic 
discovery system similar to the kind of metaphor 
used by objects that provide a basic interface by 
which further interfaces can be "discovered".  That 
is pretty much in accordance with the early papers 
on enterprise engineering for distributed systems. 

Probably a good start and insightful with regards 
to establishing a semantic for establishing a 
contract.  Since I can't read SCL, it isn't possible 
to see how deep this goes.

Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
clbullar@ingr.com
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~cbullard/lensongs.ram

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h



From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@simonstl.com]

Some sort of discovery mechanism, possibly though not necessarily using
HTTP, seems very much in order, however, and I hope this proposal moves
discussion forward.