There's an ongoing discussion in WSMan about what to do during a
Put when there are optional properties of a resource.  Here's the
scenario:
- do a T.Create() that includes some optional (minOccurs=0) elements in the XML.
- do a T.Put() but this time do not include those optional elements.

Question: are those optional elements reset to their default values (eg. null)
or do they retain the values specified during the t.Create()?

The Transfer spec currently says things like:
"This specification defines one Web service operation (Put) for updating a resource by providing a replacement representation."
and
"A Put request MUST be targeted at the resource whose representation is desired to be replaced, ..."

These, to me, seem to push for a total replacement - meaning the values
would go back to their defaults.

The WSMan spec added some text that reinforces this notion:
"To delete individual property values within an object that, itself, is not to be deleted, either the client can perform a Put operation with those properties removed, or the service can support fragment-level access."

The Transfer spec itself should make this clear by being more explicit about it.

Proposal:
To the end of the first paragraph of the Put section, add the following text:

This operation will replace the entire XML representation of the resource. Any optional values (elements or attributes) not specified in the Put request message will be set to some resource specific default value.