Re: please confirm -- strings and states

[Karsten Riemer <Karsten.Riemer@east.sun.com>]

Hi Jamie,
thanks for weighing in,
I used the word "normally" because I am thinking that this gets into event
oriented computing, and it is not really the event that causes the
collaboration to commence or conclude, it is the 'optional' notification of
this collaboration about the event that causes it. I didn't know how to say
that tersely, and also it would put onto the collaboration model a publish and
subscribe requirement. This was the area I wanted to narrow down the scope to
REA and the documents associated with contract formation and economic event
notification. That I can model in an unambiguous way, the strings I cannot.
But I think we agreed that we (or someone) would provide a starting grammar
and vocabulary for the strings. 

-karsten

>Jim, Bob, I have three questions about the definitions below, probably
>because I am rock-stick-stone-dumb about this stuff.
>
>(1)  Does the definitional phrase "event external to this collaboration" 
>_permit_,  _require_ or _prohibit_ the use of simple parsable text strings,
>along the lines that Bob described a few months ago? 
>
>(2)  If one wanted to run a collab using strings in that manner, where
>would one specify to the BSI that strings are going to be used?  Where in
>the darn code do these things turn up?   I am aware that middleware can
>also handle these transitions -- what I'm trying to figure out is how the
>BSI, or Bob's hypothetical little-old-lady-human-parser, gets the
>vocabulary of strings, or knows how to use strings at all.  
>
>(3)   What does the definitional qualified "normally" below do?  Duh?  I'm
>confused.    Does that mean that transition control doesn't always obey
>state management?  
>
>Thanks,  Jamie
>
>At 08:40 AM 3/17/2001, Karsten Riemer wrote:
>>Subject to a reply from Jim Clark to my below e-mail,
>>here is my suggested definitions for the four strings we have adopted 
>>at Business Transaction and Binary Collaboration levels:
>>
>>beginsWhen: A description of an event external to this
>>collaboration/transaction that normally causes this
>>collaboration/transaction to commence.
>>
>>endsWhen: A description of an event external to this
>>collaboration/transaction that normally causes this 
>>collaboration/transaction to conclude.
>>
>>requires: A description of a state external to this
>>collaboration/transaction that is required before this 
>>collaboration/transaction can commence
>>
>>resultsIn: A description of a state that does not exist before the 
>>execution of this collaboration/transaction but will exists as a 
>>result of the execution of this collaboration/transaction 
>>
>>