Hi Paul!

On Mon, 2007-01-15 at 09:49 +0000, Paul Downey wrote:
> 
> Question: is BPEL 2.0 likely to enjoy first class support in WCF?

Sorry, but you've missed the point on BPEL to be even asking that
question: WS-* is primarily about interoperability. WCF is an
implementation platform that supports those interoperability protocols.

BPEL is not primarily about interoperability but rather about
portability of an executable script. Now you know why the original
version was called BPEL4WS and not WS-BPEL: Unlike the other IBM/MSFT
WS-* specifications, this one wasn't about interoperability. 

Now you can assert that BPEL documents are not portable because vendors
have extended it in different ways and hence useless. To some extent
you're right, but this is like the criticism people gave of SOAP in the
early days (especially ebXML/RosettaNet/TPAML type folks): It doesn't
have built-in security (or built in reliability) so who cares? The
reality of course was that that was by design; security was meant to be
added on later (and it was). 

Similarly, BPEL was designed as a base with the idea that vendor groups
would define extensions (activities, scripting languages etc.) which
would suit such group's purposes. Have those happened yet? I think Frank
pointed to a few starts but AFAIK things are not prime time yet. I don't
think you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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/

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