Thread Subject: Re: Concerns about our current definition of a"platform"

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From: Gregg Vanderheiden
Date: Mon, Aug 20 2007 10:05 PM

Yes - I did edit old version.

Nope - not intentional.

Comments below. (marked GV:)





Gregg

-- ------------------------------

Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.







> -----Original Message-----

> From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

> [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf

> Of Peter Korn

> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 9:55 PM

> To: TEITAC Web/Software Subcommittee

> Subject: Re: [teitac-websoftware] Concerns about our current

> definition of a"platform"

>

> Gregg,

>

> You provided edits to the version in the 17Aug draft, not to

> the proposal I put forth. Was that your intention?



GV: Yes I did - but not intentionally.



The key

> for me is what the platform provides that defines it as a

> platform (with what the bulk of applications use cementing

> that definition or countering it).



GV: Agree



With such a definition,

> we can then place requirements on anything that is a platform

> (by that definition).



GV: Don't follow that. What I edited into the provision was just an
admission that some things serve as partial platforms. And that is in note
3



>

> Going into "partially", and "acting as", and "for those

> aspects of an application" complicates matters significantly.

> And I don't see what we gain by doing that. If something is

> trying to be a platform, then it should obey the platform rules.

>



GV: Again - don't follow. Your note 3 below says the same thing. But by
not having anything to that effect in the provision - the note contradicts
the provision.





Your new draft is below -- with edits



*Platform software*:

collection of software components that runs on an underlying software or

hardware layer, and that provides a set of software services to

applications which allows them to be isolated, partially or completely,
from the underlying software or hardware layer.



* Note 1: For our purposes, it is those software components/services

provided to applications for the creation or manipulation of user

interfaces and user input - and that impact accessibility - that are

of concern for whether something is a platform or not. An

application offering a compute service, such as a 3d rendering

engine where a requesting application isn't using the software

components/services to create a user interface and interact with

the user, should not be considered to be acting as a "platform".

* Note 2: If applications typically connect directly to the

underlying layer, rather than relying solely on the platform

software components and services, then it is likely that the

software components in the middle are not acting as a "platform".

For example, a program which hosts plug-in's is not a platform if

the plug-in can directly access the underlying layer.

* Note 3: A particular software component may play the role of a

platform in some situations and not in others. Platforms can

include such things as Internet browsers, operating systems,

plug-ins to internet browsers or other software applications, and

under some situations, byte-code interpreted virtual environments,

and other "programming within another programming" environments.

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