Re: A priori; the big secret

Suresh, Joseph,

Let me be clear with my intent here.

Firstly, I want to explain what HTTP is.  Second, since we all seem to
agree on the value of a "zero protocol" (as Suresh calls it), I want to
build the best one possible, and I believe that reusing what we can
from HTTP is a good thing.  I am *NOT suggesting that we require people
use HTTP; only that they use the same methods and response codes.
HTTP's semantics were designed to be used for all URIs, which includes
Web services (and FTP URIs, and mailto: URIs, and ...).

The methods I listed; get(), put(), post(), etc.. are at the *EXACT
SAME* layer as the methods found in a typical API; the application
layer.

I'll address Joseph's specific question;

On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 05:57:48PM -0700, Joseph Hui wrote:
> BTW, have you settled (in your mind) on whether this will be
> manifested as a protocol or an interface?  (They are not the
> same for the discerning, as you well know.)

If by "interface" you mean "API", then they are the same.  Or at least
they address the same problem; defining application semantics over the
wire.  As I said above, HTTP GET is at exactly the same layer in the
stack as "getStockQuote".

Thanks.

MB
-- 
Mark Baker, CTO, Idokorro Mobile (formerly Planetfred)
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.               distobj@acm.org
http://www.markbaker.ca        http://www.idokorro.com

Received on Wednesday, 22 May 2002 22:31:58 UTC