[saga-rg] SAGA-CORE-WG charter

[Tom Goodale]

  The Charter

  Informational Section
  ---------------------

   Area:           Applications [Standards]

   Name of group:  Simple API for Grid Applications

   Acronym:        SAGA-CORE-WG

   Type of group:  Working Group (WG)

   Chairs:         Tom Goodale, Andre Merzky

   Secretaries:    TBD

   Email list:     saga-core-wg at ggf.org

   Web page:       http://forge.ggf.org/projects/saga-core-wg/


  Charter:
  -------

     Focus/Purpose:
     -------------

     The SAGA-RG coordinates the development of simple, application
     oriented APIs for Grid Applications.  This working group is the
     first working group spawned by the RG, and will concentrate on
     producing concrete API documents for the functional areas
     identified by the initial SAGA-RG design team.  Specifically:

       - Files
       - Logical files
       - Job submission and management
       - Streaming communication between processes

     along with the core API areas which are independent of specific
     Grid operations:

       - Tasks
       - Sessions

     Scope:
     -----

     The initial SAGA-RG collected a number of application use cases
     which are published in the GGF Document n umber GFD-???.  The work
     of this group will be based on this use cases, which will define
     the scope and target application areas for the API.  Simplicity
     and conciseness will be the governing design principles.

     The specification of services and the protocols to interact with
     them is out of the scope of the WG.  Rather, the API seeks to hide
     the detail of any service infrastructures that may or may not
     exist to implement the functionality that the application
     developer needs. The WG will, however, actively liase with all
     grid-middleware groups within the GGF to ensure compatability.

     The WG will continue to identify projects outside GGF with similar
     API-focus and goals, and will seek their input in the development
     of the API and its implementation. The WG will provide detailed
     examples and cook-book.


     Exit Strategy:
     --------------

     The group will finish its work after the publication of the API
     Specification as GGF standard recommendation, accompanied by
     documents for API language bindings.


     Goals:
     ------

     The SAGA-CORE-WG is the first WG spawned by the SAGA-RG, which
     produced the informational document ("SAGA Use-Case Document,
     version 1"), and is producing a related requirements document.

     The main goal of the WG is the creation of an API specification for
     the functional areas defined in these documents and explored by the
     first SAGA-RG design team, as listed above.  This API will be
     submitted to GGF as a standard recommendation.  The WG will produce
     the following documents:


     * Informational Document:
       "Abstract SAGA-CORE-API Specification"
        The initial SAGA API specification in SIDL, which is
        language neutral.

     * Recommendation documents:
       Language bindings for the "Abstract SAGA-CORE-API" specification
       These will be for a number of languages, such as C, C++, Java and
       Fortran.

     Milestones:
     -----------

     GGF16: - SAGA API Specification pre-v1.0

     GGF17: - Submission of abstract SAGA API Specification v1.0
            - Submit Informational Document "SAGA Compatability with GGF middleware"
            - Implementation details review.

     GGF19: - Present Draft Language Bindings (C/C++/Java/Fortran)