RE: Resource definition

I agree that the act of turning on/off the switch is not a resource. I also
don't think that the HTTP PUT message that changes the state either is a
resource. Do you agree?

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Baker [mailto:distobj@acm.org]
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 5:33 PM
To: Burdett, David
Cc: www-ws-arch@w3.org
Subject: Re: Resource definition


On Tue, Feb 18, 2003 at 04:38:54PM -0800, Burdett, David wrote:
> In an earlier email, Francis McCabe said ...
> 
> >>>... to use one of Mark's earlier examples, turning on a light switch.
The
> state of the light is a representable resource; no question. The action of
> flipping the switch is not so representable. The arm which is used to flip
> the switch is, however, a resource; although any representation of it in
> terms of bits is merely a symbol and not the real thing.<<<
> 
> So is the act of moving the arm to turn on/off the switch a resource?

Well, I suppose you could make it one, but I'm not sure what that
would accomplish.

One doesn't need to talk about a switch, or the movement of a switch, or
even a toggleSwitch() method, in order to effect a state change with the
bulb, because the interaction style is one of *state transfer*; if I
want to turn the bulb on, I just do a HTTP PUT containing a
representation of the "on state" to the URI identifying the lightbulb.

MB
-- 
Mark Baker.   Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.        http://www.markbaker.ca
Web architecture consulting, technical reports, evaluation & analysis