progress on web applications architecture: a few thoughts

In the discussion today, some additional topics around web applications:


 *   Most of the area of "web applications" focuses on specifications of APIs. There is a question of what a reasonable specification of an API is, as far as "what it is that a conservative developer can, and cannot assume, in terms of preconditions of the input and invariants of the results of the API call", separate from "what a developer of an implementation of the API must do", e.g., by giving a reference or prototypical implementation.
 *   Privacy and accessibility are two examples of areas where policy interacts with API design. Are there general architectural principles we can point to that will help working groups make good decisions here?
 *   What is the nature of extensibility for web applications? The extensibility mechanisms surely are different than those appropriate for markup languages. For example, can APIs be extended with additional arguments ("flags")?

.... examples of some things to address ...

Larry

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http://larry.masinter.net