Subject: CIW Minutes

From: "Jack Sanders" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 93 11:28:24 EDT

Minutes of the CPI-C Implementers' Workshop (CIW), June 9-11, 1993

===== Preliminaries

The third meeting of the CPI-C Implementers' Workshop was held
June 9-11, 1993, in Raleigh, NC.  Jack Sanders, CIW Chair, conducted
the meeting.

Twenty-three persons representing 11 companies attended.  The companies
represented are listed below.  The list of attendees is available upon
request.

    AMDAHL CORPORATION           ATTACHMATE CORPORATION
    BOEING COMPUTER SERVICES     CGK COMPUTER (SIEMENS)
    EICON TECHNOLOGY             IBM CORPORATION
    NETSOFT                      SYSTEMS STRATEGIES, INC.
    TANDEM COMPUTERS, INC.       WALL DATA, INC.
    XEROX CORPORATION

===== Meeting summary

The CIW took the following action at the concluding plenary session:

  The CIW Procedures Manual was formally adopted, and the CIW Technical
  Plan was approved.

  Approved Pages status was granted for the work items below, based
  on the contributed documents with modifications agreed to in
  the SIG working meetings.

    - Non-blocking
    - Extensions for OSI TP

  Approved Direction status was granted for the work items below,
  based on the contributed documents with modifications agreed
  to in the SIG working meetings.

    - FDX conversations for OSI TP
    - Security

===== General

Provisions and status of the CIW Member Agreement were reviewed.  The
Member Agreement addresses the intellectual-property-rights aspects of
participating in and contributing to the CIW.  The final version of the
Member Agreement will be mailed to CIW members when a cooperative
agreement with X/Open has been concluded.

The new CIW Editor, Debbie Prevost, announced that a review draft
of the CPI-C 2.0 spec would be available 6/18/93 on the Internet.
Comments are due by 6/24/93, when an inspection meeting will be held.
A draft of the book will be delivered to X/Open on 6/30/93 for
inclusion in X/Open's snapshot publication on CPI-C.  The 6/30
draft will become the new reference copy of the CPI-C spec, to be
used for page numbers and current text when requesting changes
to the architecture.

-----
Note:  The X/Open plan to publish a Snapshot in 3Q93 has been cancelled.
X/Open is now considering publishing a CPI-C Preliminary Spec in 94,
based on the CP version of the Spec the CIW is aiming at in 12/93.
As a result, the 6/30 draft for X/Open is not necessary.  A further
communication will follow with information on documentation plans.
-----

Questions about the documentation should be addressed to
[email-masked]

===== SIG meeting reports

Productive SIG working meetings were held on the topics listed below.
A brief summary of each SIG working meeting is included.  A full account
of each SIG meeting will be distributed to the SIG via E-mail.

  Full Duplex
    The Full-Duplex SIG agreed to request AD status (subsequently
    granted by the CIW) for the proposed enhancements to CPI-C FDX
    to enable a mapping from/to OSI TP Shared Control.  At the
    March CIW meeting, the CIW had granted AD status for the
    CPI-C FDX enhancements to enable a mapping to/from APPC.  Thus,
    AD status on the complete CPI-C FDX proposal has been granted.
    The FDX SIG aims at getting AP status in the September CIW.

  Non-blocking
    The NB SIG reviewed an AP proposal for non-blocking enhancements.
    In addition to several minor corrections and improvements to the
    proposal, a new parameter, callback_info, has been identified for
    the Set_Queue_Callback_Function call.  The proposal was granted
    Approved Pages status during the closing plenary session.  The
    SIG is now calling for implementers' to submit recommendations
    for using the Set_Queue_Callback_Function call for various
    systems.  The recommended usage will be included in a CP proposal
    for approval by the CIW.

  Extensions for OSI TP
    The OSI TP SIG reviewed the proposal for enhancements to CPI-C to
    provide support for an OSI TP protocol stack. Several minor additions
    were made to the proposal. The proposal was granted Approved Pages
    status during the closing plenary. The enhancements will be included
    in the next draft of the CPI-C 2.0 document by the editor.

  Directory
    The directory SIG reviewed the AP proposal for support of a
    distributed directory.  Modifications and improvements were made
    to the document, and the SIG agreed to request advancement to AP
    status.  At the plenary session, concerns regarding the
    applicability of the new support in the OSI TP environment
    resulted in a lack of consensus to advance to AP status.  The
    concerns will be addressed within the directory SIG, and the
    proposal will be reconsidered at a later time.

  Security
    The CPI-C interface changes were reviewed.  LU 6.2 architecture
    changes in terms of high level stylized flows were covered.
    The SIG requested AD on the proposal, and it was subsequently
    granted by the CIW.

  Secondary Return Codes
    The 2RC SIG reviewed a proposal for support of secondary return
    codes.  Requirements and secondary information for four secondary
    information types were largely agreed to, but consensus could not
    be reached on the Extract_Secondary_Information call.  The SIG
    now welcomes new proposals for providing a mechanism of
    returning secondary information to the program.

  Conformance for CPI-C Level 2
    The Conformance SIG reviewed a detailed proposal for a required
    CPI-C 2.0 base support and optional towers based on the Approved
    Direction status agreed to in March.  Unfortunately consensus could
    not be reached on the proposal, and therefore no status change was
    requested from the CIW.

  Language bindings
    No additional language bindings were identified as requirements
    at this time.

  Framework
    The framework SIG discussed the management of pools of logical
    connections between the local and remote systems.  The SIG agreed
    to propose the creation of a new SIG to define mechanisms for pool
    management.  At the plenary session, however, there was no
    consensus that such a SIG was necessary at this time.

===== Architecture interpretation

Ref:  Note from Jack Sanders to ciw-general, 5/28/93, subject: Accept_*

The proposed CPI-C change (in referenced note) to resolve lack of
specificity regarding when CPI-C will return if a program issues Accept_*
and no incoming conversation is available was reviewed.  Agreement was
reached to specify that Accept_Incoming issued with processing_mode set
to CM_BLOCKING will wait for an incoming conversation if none is
available.  A usage note will be added to Accept_Conversation to indicate
that an implementation may choose to specify a minimum time before
returning CM_PROGRAM_STATE_CHECK.  Specific changes to the CPI-C Spec
will follow.

===== Implementers' presentations

Two presentations by CPI-C implementers were well received.
  Marty Keech of IBM presented "AS/400 Trace CPI Communications
(TRCCPI-C)."  Marty described TRCCPI-C, an application debug tool
shipped as part of the base CPI-C support in OS/400.  The presentation
included examples of the extensive information maintained by TRCCPIC
for the program as it issues CPI-C calls.
  Alan Yueh of IBM presented "NS/DOS trace facility - general CPI-C and
application tracing."  Alan provided details of the new tracing support
within NS/DOS, an SNA platform for the DOS/Windows environment.
  Thanks to Marty and Alan for their excellent presentations.
Suggestions and volunteers for implementer or user presentations are
hereby solicited for the September meeting.

===== Documentation

In addition to SIG materials, the following new documents were
distributed at the meeting.  The document's directory/filename in
the CIW document library on ibmstandards.cary.ibm.com follows in
parentheses.

  Chapter 2, CPI-C Terms and Concepts (/ciw/spec/chap2.ps)
    This version of Chapter 2 includes the neutralization
    changes for OSI and SNA as well as changes for the OSI TP,
    non-blocking, and directory work items.

  Cumulative CPI-C 1.2 Spec error file (/ciw/spec/cpic12.err)

  Documentation plans for the CPI-C 2.0 spec
    (/ciw/conference/06-93/docplans.ps)

  Introduction to the CIW (ciw/general/ciwintro.txt)
    Introduction to the CIW, including instructions on use of the
    electronic infrastructure

  CIW Document List (ciw/general/doclist.txt)
    Description of documents in the CIW document library

===== Upcoming Meeting Notices

The next meeting of the CIW will be held September 8-10, 1993 in the
Seattle area.  The agenda will be posted at a later date.  The following
items will be included in the meeting's technical objectives:

  Approved Pages status for

    - FDX conversations and expedited data
    - Directory
    - Security
    - Secondary return codes (if AD is reached between meetings)

  Closed Pages status for

    - Non-blocking
    - Extensions for OSI TP

Subsequent 1993 Meetings

  December 7 - 9, Raleigh, NC

=====
Any corrections or additions?

Jack Sanders, CIW Chair
[email-masked]