[saga-rg] Re: Fwd (s.newhouse at omii.ac.uk): Re: SAGA Strawman API

[Steven Newhouse]

Andre,

> The spec for now is supposed to be language independent - we
> will define language bindings as soon as that spec
> stabilizes.

Sure. Some indication in this document may help people understand the 
type of interfaces that will be produced before the complete spec. 
binding is available.

> Oh - I wonder if we sent you an old version?

Probably... date bask to GGF 13 or soon after.

> We have to flesh out a session handle like thing, which is
> also to encapsulate security.  You are right - huge missing
> piece...

I think this needs to be addressed before going much further.

> That is an implementation issue, really.  We could imagine
> SAGA implementations which can only handle gsi and gridftp,
> and other implementations which have a plugin mechanism and
> can handle all types of protocols.

But how do I as a user discover which protocols are supported by the 
implementation? Do I discover this by calls failing?

> The latter is better we think, but the API spec does not
> specify the implementation and architecture.

If you want middleware providers to support the interface specifying how 
protocol plugins are added in is as important as specifying how users 
will expect to use the APIs.

> I am not sure if I understand your distinction between 
> Tier 1 and Tier 2 - could you give an example please?

Tier 1 - Stuff you are going to do now. Generic task & error framework 
and support for files movement and job submission.

Tier 2 - Things for later (V2 of the spec?) - streams, logical file 
catalogues, etc.

Steven
-- 
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Dr Steven Newhouse                        Tel:+44 (0)2380 598789
Deputy Director, Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII)
Suite 6005, Faraday Building (B21), Highfield Campus,
Southampton University, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ,  UK