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Re: Re: Why REST? (RE: WSIO- With Name)

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Re: Why REST? (RE: WSIO- With Name)
• From: Paul Prescod <paul@p...>
• Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:39:23 -0800
• References: <2C61CCE8A870D211A523080009B94E4306FEE85C@HQ5> <E16awe9-0002Fb-00@c...>

Alaric Snell wrote:
> 
> On Tuesday 12 February 2002 21:32, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> 
> > A URI is a name and a locator.  A URI can have arguments
> > appended to the end of it, so it is a hyperlink and a function call
> > (which after a lot of years I've come to believe are the same thing
> > but we can argue about that).
> 
> I agree with Len - argue with him and you argue with me too!

As I've mentioned a couple of times, in the general case a function call
can have dangerous side effects. Therefore one does not (in general):

 * bookmark them
 * email them to one's mother
 * crawl them with a robot
 * execute them whenever one is curious about what they do

This means that you cannot safely combine generic function calls into a
web of information that you traverse whenever you feel like it, however
you feel like it. On the Web, a hyperlink is like a function call
wherein the provider of the function promises not to do anything
potentially destructive. Therein lies a huge, er, functional difference.

 Paul Prescod

• References:
  • RE: Re: Why REST? (RE: WSIO- With Name)
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
  • Re: Re: Why REST? (RE: WSIO- With Name)
    • From: Alaric Snell <alaric@a...>

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