Abstained from SDD Primer Approval Ballot

[lazar.borissov@sap.com]

Hi all, 
I would like first to apologize for the late feedback. I was not able due some other tasks and priorities to focus earlier on the topic. 

With respect to this I will abstain from current vote instead of voting negative. 

My objections to the current SDD Primer is that in general the document does not fulfills its purpose i.e. to be simple, easy to understand, initial introduction to the topic. The main requirement for a primer is to help people understand the topic and not require any additional knowledge. Also it shall be enough to allow people use the technology at least up to some complexity level. 

The current primer does not fulfil these requirements. My proposal is to change the primer in following way: 
- use the same samples, they are fine 
- start from the particular use case explaining what we want to get and why: 
- for simple example "Install JRE on AIX, versions between 5.1 and 5.3" 
- for complex example "Install 3-tier J2EE application with necessary JRE runtime, J2EE client, backend logic and database connections plus some optional language packs" 
- describe clearly every line in the descriptors - why it is there and what connection to other objects it has. 

Here are just some explanations with respect to above comments on Primer version 0.6: 

section "4.3.2 Composite DeploymentDescriptor" 
432-439: it is not clear which element is child of which and why. {Also in the xml-excerpt the children are not indented and it is not easily visible (at least printed on A4 as I did) that for example SimpleJ2eeServlet is child of J2EESevletServer.} 
465-468: Here in a primer I will expect explanation what is difference between BaseContent, SelectableContent and LocalizationContent. 
469-477: Here we see explanation on the xml-element hierarchy but this is syntax, not semantic explanation: what is BaseContent, why ContainedPackage is child of it and what is it purpose, what is the mapping between arguments JDBC_User/JDBC_Password and descriptor SC_pkg is not clear. I checked in the document down and still was not able to find what is the purpose of JDBC_User/JDBC_Password. In a primer I will expect clear explanation right here for the relationships between references and how they are supposed to interoperate. It was not even clear for me that I shall search for links in other descriptors (despite the line 'the 3-tier J2EE application package (SC_Pkg) as described in the PackageDescriptor') 
578-584: It was not explained in the primer that several languages can be delivered via the same language pack 


If my proposals are accepted I will do my best to help reworking the primer so it meats the proposed requirements. The main technical obstacle is the time difference of (almost) half day which means what I do and update will be available for colleagues in US while here is midnight :( We also will have difficulties to meat online. 

best regards, 
Lazar