- From: Mike Champion <mike.champion@softwareag-usa.com>
- Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 01:10:53 -0500
- To: www-tag@w3.org
Mark Baker writes: > the Web Services Architecture WG > have just decided[1] to wait to close the issue I raised[2] on this > subject until the TAG takes a position on it. Not exactly. The WSA WG decided to take the time to consider your issue thoroughly, to develop a closely-reasoned reply, and to develop the WSA document to the point where it can be referenced authoritatively in that reply. I did say that it was my personal opinion that IF the TAG decides that the uniform interface constraint is a principle of the Web as a whole THEN the WSA WG would be obligated to address the issue in detail. The point of taking the time to carefully consider your issue is to make sure that any eventual accounting to the TAG is thorough and consistent. So, we will respond to your issue when we have completed the analysis, whether or not the TAG says anything about the "uniform interface constraint" in Web Architecture document drafts. If they do promulgate it as a "principle", then we will reference our response to you in whatever feedback we supply the TAG as to its relevance to the Web services architecture. Speaking ONLY FOR MYSELF, this is a thorny issue: Roy Fielding makes a compelling logical case for the principle, but many argue that it is not widely adhered to by many/most Web applications, human-oriented or machine- oriented. There is a LOT of procedural code out there that gets invoked by what amounts to function names and arguments in URIs, HTTP parameters, cookies, and godknowswhat. Perhaps at some useful level of abstraction this is consistent with the "uniform interface constraint", I would not presume to judge. But it is the clear consensus of the WSA WG that this is not one of the more pressing questions facing either the TAG or the WSA WG at this point in time. I'd also like to reiterate another point I made in my earlier reply (without my co-chair hat on): SOAP 1.2 will recommend various changes that should make it easier to achieve the goal that many of us share of making Web services mesh more cleanly in with the Web as we know it, e.g., so that one can hyperlink to or bookmark a web service that simply retrieves information. I would strongly suggest giving them time to get some traction in the toolsmith and user communities; if you are right about the power of ideas such as the uniform interface constraint, pragmatic developers won't need a theoretical principle to justify using it, it will "just work". SOAP 1.2, WSDL 1.2 (IIRC), and the WSA will *allow* developers to use various principles promulgated by Dr. Fielding individually and the TAG collectively. Let's see how these experiments turn out before making Recommendations or establishing Principles on the subject.
Received on Friday, 13 December 2002 01:11:34 UTC