Re: targetResource wording

On Sun, Jun 15, 2003 at 03:00:40PM -0400, Champion, Mike wrote:
> This is the essence of the difference between REST and [whatever the
> alternative is called], IMHO.  REST seems to imply that the "real" or
> "implementation" resources should be exposed via their URI and some minimal
> set of operations directly on them; the [alternative] approach allows the
> identified resource to be an interface that encapsulates and may well hide
> the implementation details of the back-end resources.

I agree, I think this is the difference.

But if you restrict targetResource to only identifying "an interface
that encapsulates", then it should not be called "resource" any more
than one should use "bookResource" if the value is restricted to URIs
that identify books.  Best to just say "book".

I recall some discussion on this point on www-ws-arch, without
resolution, and some offline discussion with DaveH where he suggested
that the value of targetResource *could* identify any resource.  But
that's different than what you're saying above.  So let's pick one and
run with it; if it really can identify anything, then I believe my
previous concerns are relevent.  If it's only intended to identify "an
interface that encapsulates", then let's give it an appropriate name
that doesn't include the word "resource".

MB
-- 
Mark Baker.   Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.        http://www.markbaker.ca

Received on Sunday, 15 June 2003 21:32:50 UTC