Microsoft technical comment about the SCA Assembly Modelspecification

[Michael Champion <Michael.Champion@microsoft.com>]

The following is a Microsoft technical comment about the SCA Assembly Model specification that is being developed by OASIS Service Component Architecture / Assembly (SCA-Assembly) TC.

Given the stated charter of the OASIS Open CSA Member Section to "unify [software] services regardless of programming language or deployment platform," we would like to see the specification to be as inclusive and platform/language neutral as possible. In that regard, we observe that the SCA specifications should be open to a diversity of implementation choices, and not restrict them. 

Upon reviewing the Assembly Model specification v1.1, CD 03, we have noticed that section 13.2 currently reads:

"The implementation MUST support and comply with at least one of the Open CSA Member Section adopted implementation types."

The above should be changed as in the following:

The implementation MUST support at least one implementation type:
a)         as defined by the Open CSA Member Section or,
b)         as defined in the XML Schema implementation substitution group as described by Section 10 (Extension Model).

We also respectfully request that each SCA committee should carefully review its specifications to make any similar changes necessary to ensure that every SCA specification is open and neutral with respect to customer and implementation choices.

As foundational sponsor-level member of OASIS, Microsoft demonstrates the highest level of commitment to open standards and industry-wide interoperability. Such interoperability is best served by allowing for as many large and diverse implementation types as possible based on variety of operating environments and languages, as opposed to a limited and fixed list of choices defined by the TC at a given time.

Michael Champion
OASIS voting member - Microsoft Corporation