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May 19, 2003

Bray on REST

Tim "Co-Father of XML" Bray has written a clear, concise and understandable introduction to SOAP and the REST of the ways of talking to a Web server. The question is when it makes sense for a program to ask another program for information by sending it a URL or a more complex bundle of data. And this basic process is central to how we're going to build Web services over the next few years.

<asbestos>
I make no pretense of knowing who's right in the issues Tim raises.
</asbestos>

Note: Here's Tim's brief piece on why URI is right and URL is wrong.

Posted by D. Weinberger at May 19, 2003 02:34 PM


Comments

No need for abestos with me since I admit to having RESTful leaning in my view of technical architecture.

As much as I apprecaite Tim Bray coming out and writing on this topic given his stature, there are some flaws to the REST piece you are pointing to. Sam Ruby articulates it best:
http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1402.html

Tim later followed up on this "feedback" he got for this piece here: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/14/Technorati2

One last quick note since I'm sure I've bored everyone who comes here to tears. SOAP does not necessarily equate to "not RESTful." SOAP is commonly used to label corporate giants (ala Microsoft, IBM etc) view of Web services which is somewhat of a misnomer. The forthcoming SOAP 1.2 specification remdies a lot of the issue that had the RESTonians hopping mad. (To perserve backward compatability you can still screw up and do something that is not RESTful.) Peter Drayton has presented on this topic quite effectively. (PPT here: http://www.razorsoft.net/slides/RESTfulSOAP.ppt)

Hope that is helpful. Your eyes can stop rolling now. ;)

Posted by: Timothy Appnel | May 19, 2003 04:09 PM


I agree with the author.

Posted by: zip codes | September 6, 2003 03:50 AM


It will take years to correct this problem.

Posted by: dts | June 18, 2006 03:58 PM


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