DAML-S Release Status

The current "pre-release" version 0.5 of DAML-S is an incomplete draft version, intended for review and comment from within the DAML community. Once this feedback has been incorporated, this material will be released on the public side of daml.org.

What's Missing

This release of DAML-S is missing several notable components that will be added in subsequent releases. In particular

Semantics for DAML-S
DAML-S comprises a set of ontologies defined in the DAML+OIL (March 2001) markup language. DAML+OIL has both a model-theoretic semantics and a set of axioms that define a so-called axiomatic semantics. While DAML-S inherits this semantics, we will be producing a semantics for DAML-S in a subsequent version.
Service Grounding Ontology
There is no discussion (or DAML specifications) of the details of the gounding of services. This material is forthcoming.
Process Control Ontology
In the technical overview section, we identified 4 tasks to be performed by agents. The fourth task, execution monitoring, requires further markup of services. In a subsequent release we will include a process control ontology to provide markup in support of this task.
Conversational Protocol
The current DAML-S definitions are insufficiently clear about how to specify the precise communication patterns that are to take place in carrying out a service (that is, the patterns of messages that are to be exchanged between service participants). However, we believe that the process ontology already provides a basis for specifying these patterns, and it is likely that these specifications will not require many additional new constructs.