On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 20:52 -0500, Anne Thomas Manes wrote: > Not really. Orchestration and choreography are different. > Orchestration defines a process, while choreography defines an > interaction between two or more parties. > > My preferred approach to orchestration is one based on state and rules > versus an execution plan. e.g., "Given the current state, what should > happen next?" versus "This step just completed (or failed to > complete), so this is supposed to happen next."
This is just too simplistic Anne- there are lots of scenarios where rules-based systems are just the right choice. There are also lots of scenarios where a traditional programming language is just the right choice. Similarly, there are lots of scenarios where a more parallel/asynch programming language like BPEL is the right solution. There simply is no silver bullet answer and dismissing BPEL saying "its just wrong" is just too simplistic. Plenty of rule based systems have been around for a long time. So why do you think people have gotten on board BPEL? > A state/rules-based system has no requirement for a centralized engine > to manage the process. Are you asserting that all business processes must be run in a distributed fashion? Clearly that's too simplistic too- there certainly are processes that are intrinsically distributed, but pretty much every workflow system that's in production today has centralized execution capabilities. Are you dismissing all that as busted? Surely not. [In the interests of full disclosure- I'm one of authors of the original BPEL spec. Frank Leymann, who's on this list, who was its father from the IBM side, will clearly have input on this topic too!] Sanjiva. -- Sanjiva Weerawarana, Ph.D. Founder & Director; Lanka Software Foundation; http://www.opensource.lk/ Founder, Chairman & CEO; WSO2, Inc.; http://www.wso2.com/ Director; Open Source Initiative; http://www.opensource.org/ Member; Apache Software Foundation; http://www.apache.org/ Visiting Lecturer; University of Moratuwa; http://www.cse.mrt.ac.lk/
