- From: Mark Baker <distobj@acm.org>
- Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 21:11:56 -0500
- To: Anne Thomas Manes <anne@manes.net>
- Cc: www-ws-arch@w3.org
On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 03:46:04PM -0500, Anne Thomas Manes wrote: > Mark Baker said: > > > > You snipped out the HTTP/WSDL bit. Do you agree that HTTP defines an > > interface in the same way that a WSDL document does? > > No, I don't agree. The HTTP interface represents almost no semantic meaning. > A WSDL interface can represent enormous semantic meaning. See Ugo's last > message regarding the law of conservation regarding application semantics. It's exactly the opposite. A WSDL document declaring an operation called "foobar" doesn't tell you what foobar means. RFC 2616 tells you exactly what "GET" means. > HTTP has no knowledge of the contents of messages. SOAP/WSDL has extensive > knowledge of the contents of messages. Therefore with SOAP/WSDL I can > generate code to process my messages. I don't have to write all the code by > hand. > > In many circumstances, I prefer to put some semantics into my interface > because it makes the application development process that much easier. > > That's not to say that I don't like the REST approach, but I haven't seen an > argument that works for me as to why it's so much better than the "abuse of > POST" approach. I understand that REST takes better advantage of the power > of the Web, and you can do things like create book marks and pass links, and > cache results, etc. And these might be very desirable features in some > circumstances. But from my perspective, most "real" Web services (filing my > taxes online, submitting an insurance claim, ordering a thousand widgets, > managing logistics, posting an email correspondence to my CRM system at > Salesforce.com, etc.) will require SOAP headers for security, management, > reliability, message coordination, etc. The REST approach can't address > these requirements. Of course it can. S/MIME is a perfectly good security solution that works with HTTP. The RFC 822 Message-Id header can also be used with HTTP. Anything that can be done with a SOAP header can be done with an HTTP header (except scoping and mandatory extensions, so just use PEP or, in the future, Waka). MB -- Mark Baker. Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA. http://www.markbaker.ca Will distribute objects for food
Received on Wednesday, 20 November 2002 21:08:21 UTC