- From: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
- Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 23:35:59 -0400
- To: "Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@apache.org>
- cc: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>, "Noah Mendelsohn/Cambridge/IBM" <noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com>, Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>, www-tag@w3.org
> The Web both supplies and depends on uniform semantics. Web servers > and client-side library abstractions (connectors and proxies) provide > uniform semantic interfaces to other information services. Proxies > work because of it. Web user-agents pass those uniform semantics on > to the user through a consistent UI. That is what makes the Web desirable > for information integration. The two are inseparable. There are two ways one can think of an architecture. The first way is to provide a common framework that allows a wide variety of pieces to work together,while largely preserving the ability of those pieces to provide their individual functions and to evolve independently of one another. The second way is to try to limit functionality of each piece, coercing everything into a uniform model. The first way encourages evolution; the second inhibits it. The first way imposes substantial barriers to entry; the second imposes minimal barriers. The first way requires central control over many aspects of the architecture; the second requires only a minimal framework and an extensibility model. Keith
Received on Wednesday, 10 April 2002 23:36:11 UTC