Re: [uima] Reminder: TELECON Tomorrow - Please Attend

[Adam Lally <alally@us.ibm.com>]

In the minutes from last time I wrote
a summary of the issue we spent most of our time talking about last time.
 Here it is again in case we want to review this and have more discussion
on it today.
  -Adam


3 Section 5.8.2.2. page 74/75 seems to imply that
only wsdlUrl need
   to be supported. This means that to build an aggregate with two
   delegates 5 files need to be provided/configured (aggregate, 2
wsdl
   docs, 2 delegate descriptors).  Inclusion of "native"
delegates is
   a very important use case. It should be supported in an easy-to-use
   way. Shouldn't we allow for a more direct way or leave that to
   specific framework implementations.


   Adam: I think this raises a fundamental issue about the scope of
the 
   UIMA standard: Is the standard only about service interopability,
or 
   do we also say something about a standard format for "component
descriptor 
   files"?  We touched on this a bit in the previous call
as well.

   If the standard is about service interoperability, then deployed
UIMA
   services would have to support a getMetaData call that returns
the PE
   Metadata in the standard format.  However, an implementation
of a primitive
   component in some framework would not actually need to have a descriptor
   file on disk that contained the standard metadata.  For example
Apache UIMA
   could continue to use its own descriptor format, and a service
wrapper could
   do the translation to the standard metadata format.

   A consequence of this as it relates to the point about aggregate
descriptors 
   is that there is no "primitive descriptor" that the aggregate
could point to
   instead of the wsdl file.  Aggregate descriptors are about
composing UIMA 
   services and so the only meaningful definition of a delegate is
a wsdl file.
   (There is still the possiblity to allow an aggregate descriptor
to point to 
   another aggregate descriptor, in order to define a hierarchical
aggregate,
   which still eventually bottoms out in wsdl files, but it's not
clear this is
   necessary.)

   The advantages of defining this as a service interoperabilty specification
only
   are that it would be a simpler spec and simpler to implement.  This
disadvantages
   are that it doesn't do much to encourage common tooling for editing
UIMA standard 
   descriptor files, or component repositories that would expect packaged
components 
   to include standard descriptor files as part of their packaging.

   An alternative view for the specification would say that we are
concerned not only
   with service interoperability but also with common descriptor files.
 This could 
   better facilitate common tooling and repository development.

   One way to do that would be for the spec to define a standard UIMA
"Primitive 
   Descriptor" file, which is an XML file with two top-level
parts - the descriptive 
   section (in standard PE metadata format) and the implementation
section (which is 
   not defined by the spec and varies between frameworks).  Then,
an Aggregate Descriptor 
   could point to a Primitive Descriptor instead of a WSDL file.  Such
an Aggregate 
   would only be runnable in a particular framework, but at least
we'd have more agreement 
   across frameworks about what descriptor files look like and where
to look to find the 
   standard UIMA metadata that must be common across frameworks.

   Apache UIMA could continue to supports its current descriptor format
but also would 
   need to support the standard one too (and ideally provide converters
to translate 
   existing descriptors to the new format.
_____________________________
 Adam Lally
 Senior Software Engineer 
 Semantic Analysis & Integration
 IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
 Hawthorne, NY, 10532
 Tel: 914-784-7706,  T/L: 863-7706
 alally@us.ibm.com

David Ferrucci/Watson/IBM@IBMUS

10/11/2007 09:14 PM

To	uima@lists.oasis-open.org
cc
Subject	[uima] Reminder: TELECON Tomorrow - Please Attend

Please join us. 

We will continue our discussion on   



When we wrap this up this will represent a complete pass on the entire
research report. 

The next step will be to work out a plan to  fold our results into
a first draft for the UIMA spec. 


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David A. Ferrucci, PhD
Senior Manager, Semantic Analysis & Integration 
Chief Architect,  UIMA
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
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Tel: 914-784-7847, 8/863-7847
ferrucci@us.ibm.com
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http://www.ibm.com/research/uima  [attachment "Aggregate_Analytic_Metadata_Summary.doc"
deleted by Adam Lally/Watson/IBM]