Re: [sca-assembly] NEW ISSUE: Conformance to OPTIONAL Normative Statements

Folks,

Logged as      http://www.osoa.org/jira/browse/ASSEMBLY-121

Yours,  Mike.

Strategist - Emerging Technologies, SCA & SDO.

Co Chair OASIS SCA Assembly TC.

IBM Hursley Park, Mail Point 146, Winchester, SO21 2JN, Great Britain.

Phone & FAX: +44-1962-818014    Mobile: +44-7802-467431  

Email:  

From:
"Eric Wells" <>

To:
"OASIS SCA Assembly List"
<>

Date:
07/03/2009 13:30

Subject:
[sca-assembly] NEW ISSUE: Conformance
to OPTIONAL Normative Statements

All,

    prompted by ASSEMBLY-101 I've reviewed the OASIS Guidelines
for writing

Conformance Clauses at:

                

http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/TCHandbook/ConformanceGuidelines.html

I think these say that we need to make a statement in section 13

"Conformance" that states how optional normative statements are
to be

handled. The specific wording is:

"Within the Conformance section, a clear statement MUST be made as
to how

optional Normative Statements (i.e. those using the MAY keywords) must
be

handled."

Obviously all the mandatory normative statements MUST be satisfied, but
how

many, and which, optional statements can a vendor implement? If two vendors

implement subsets of the optional statements how can they know if the two

subsets are compatible or interoperable?

The example they give (ebXML Registry Services Specification v2.0) doesn't

map well onto the way the SCA Assembly specification is organized. We may

need to collect the optional statements into groups such that if one

statement in a group is implemented then all the others in that group MUST

also be implemented.

Of course we could always say that vendors are free to implement any

combination of the optional statements they desire?!

The guidelines also seem to imply that there should be no normative

statements in the conformance section, but this isn't so clear. (The stated

purpose of the conformance section is to list "Conformance Clauses
that need

to be observed by implementers or users of the specification in order to

claim successful use of a specification. The Conformance Clauses then refer

to the normative statements).

PROPOSAL:

I do not have any specific proposal as to which combination(s) of optional

statements should be implemented. I do however think we should, for the
sake

of interoperability, do more than just allow any combination.

Best Regards,

             Eric.

Eric Wells.

Consulting Engineer.

Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc.

San Francisco, CA. USA.

+1 (415) 656-4346



---------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe from this mail list, you must leave the OASIS TC that

generates this mail.  Follow this link to all your TCs in OASIS at:

https://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/portal/my_workgroups.php

Unless stated otherwise above:

IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number
741598. 

Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6
3AU