Re: Code generation or forms?

On Jun 15, 2005, at 5:48 AM, Mark Baker wrote:

>
> Hi Stefan,
>
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 07:39:14AM +0200, Stefan Tilkov wrote:
>
>> Mark Pilgrim (http://diveintomark.org/projects) has numerous small
>> Python wrappers around popular "Web APIs". They don't do much you
>> couldn't do yourself, but they still provide a simplified view that
>> makes them very easy to use.
>>
>> Code like this is IMO the standard example of what one could have
>> generated from a machine-readable description.
>>
>
> Really?  I wouldn't have thought so.  Let's take a closer look...
>
> In PyAmazon[1] for example, I see code which basically hides the HTTP
> interface from a developer behind a custom API of "browseBestSellers",
> "searchBy*", and "searchSimilar" operations.  While this API may very
> well be useful for developers, it's not something that a service
> provider will provide, since they have no stake in what particular
> local API any consumer of their service uses.
>

But if you want to generate code from the service description - and  
I'm not arguing for it, just pointing out the options - there will be  
some abstract description of what interactions (to avoid the term  
'operations') are possible, and what data is being exchanged. I can  
use this description dynamically, e.g. to render a UI, or I can use  
some generic API (like an HTTP lib and an XML parser) to access it,  
or use a code generation approach to map HTTP's semantics and the  
description to some programming API variant suitable for my  
environment.  I just don't see why the description published by the  
provider would be influenced by the local decision of some consumer.

> I mean, I assume that instances of this description language we're
> talking about, would be something that service developers would  
> publish,
> right?
>
Absolutely.

Best regards,
Stefan




>  [1] http://www.josephson.org/projects/pyamazon/
>
> Mark.
> -- 
> Mark Baker.  Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.          http://www.markbaker.ca
> Coactus; Web-inspired integration strategies   http://www.coactus.com
>
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 15 June 2005 21:04:14 UTC