RE: Why GET is an application semantic

It's clear from this that GET is an application semantic, now
if only it were clear what an application semantic was and why
that matters.  Maybe you had to be there (at the f2f)?

-- WaldenMathews

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Baker [mailto:distobj@acm.org]
> Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 12:59 PM
> To: www-ws-arch@w3.org
> Subject: Why GET is an application semantic
> 
> 
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> At the f2f, JeffM and I briefly discussed HTTP GET and 
> whether or not it
> was an application semantic.  Jeff initially claimed that it 
> was not, so
> I asked him what he thought one was.  IIRC, his reply included
> "getPurchaseOrder".  I'd like to demonstrate why HTTP GET is an
> application semantic the same as getPurchaseOrder, or
> getStockQuote.
> 
> There are of course, many different RPC methods that can do the job of
> retrieving a stock quote.  Some very specific ones would include;
> 
> getSunwStockQuoteRealtime()
> getIbmStockQuoteDelayed()
> 
> The problem with these is obviously that they're not readily reusable.
> They do one thing and one thing only.  So we typically generalize them
> by parameterization; permitting a single method to be used 
> for multiple
> quotes, by moving identifying information away from the method name
> and into the parameters.  An obvious next iteration would be;
> 
> getStockQuote( "SUNW", "realtime" );
> getStockQuote( "IBM", "delayed" );
> 
> However, generalization doesn't have to stop there.  We could do this;
> 
> getQuote( "Stock", "SUNW", "realtime" );
> 
> Which would permit other types of quotes to be retrieved, such as
> insurance quotes, quotes for auto repairs, etc..
> 
> Eventually however, generalization has to end.  I suggest that this
> is as far as one can go with it;
> 
> get( http://nasdaq.org/quotes/stock/realtime/sunw )
> 
> otherwise known as;
> 
> GET http://nasdaq.org/quotes/stock/realtime/sunw
> 
> I hope that helps explain at least this little piece of Web
> architecture.
> 
> MB
> -- 
> Mark Baker, CTO, Idokorro Mobile (formerly Planetfred)
> Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.               distobj@acm.org
> http://www.markbaker.ca        http://www.idokorro.com
>

Received on Monday, 17 June 2002 13:09:18 UTC