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Why REST? (RE: WSIO- With Name)

• To: 'Paul Prescod' <paul@p...>, xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Why REST? (RE: WSIO- With Name)
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 08:55:00 -0600

From: Paul Prescod [mailto:paul@p...]

Admittedly, I am using email very loosely here, a simplification 
to mean no state is guaranteed, only expected.   For some reason, 
UDDI has methods that are very precise about expectations.  I want 
to know why they prefer that over REST because even to me, URIs 
that identify known sources of typed information are easier.

"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" wrote:
> 
> Google is an extremely simple and predictable system.  I type in the URL, it
> sends me a search page.  I type in a string, it sends me the addresses of
> documents that contain or relate to that string.  I click on an address, it
> sends me the document.  Not very deep, action wise.  The essence of statelessness
> is that it is all just mail.

>What does that mean? If I'm already lost I'm not going to make much
>progress through the rest of your message which builds upon this
>seemingly key point.

It means that all I have to know to work from Google is www.google.com 
and a possible search term.  After that, it is discovery-based if I have 
the discipline to stay on track.  However, unless I am very confident, 
I deal with a response of lots of sources through which I must browse 
to find the useful ones.

>> "Resources are conceptual objects. **Representations** of them are delivered
>> across the web in HTTP messages....web services will use individual data objects
>> as endpoints"
>> 
>> What is in the message?  We aren't sending the object.  We are sending a URI, yes?
>> We are sending a message to an address, right?  Email.
>> We might expect something to be sent back.  Email.

>So every transfer of bits across a network is email to you? FTP is
>email?

REST is.  It doesn't send or expect state.  It expects a representation. 
How is that different from packing an XML file in a POST?

But not FTP.  FTP let's me get and set directories, change file names, delete files, 
and so on.  In FTP, I have commands.   In email, I send a request wrapped in 
an envelope to an address I know a priori because based on description or 
discovery, I have confidence the mail returned will contain a range of 
messages I expect, or I have to discover that address.   Google seems to me 
to be a very inefficient way to conduct a series of business transactions.

Why do you think UDDI is designed the way it is presently as methods?

len

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