On Fri, 2005-02-18 at 00:39, S. Mike Dierken wrote:

> This looks like a description language for specifying available procedures
> that can be called remotely. Is that what the description language is trying
> to simplify and make available?

For a variety of reasons, there seems to be two different things calling
themselves REST: GET html form + POST / Fielding's dissertation / the
Web as we know it... and "a Simple HTTP API via RPC and Encoded data
(usually XML)" or "SHARE". I've been bothered [1] that there hasn't
been a distinct name for it, so I made one up. I like it because:

1/ It doesn't confuse things.
2/ It's sympathetic to what these services want to do -- share data-
and service- with the net and their callers.
3/ Maybe it's even marketing/friendly enough to get wide adoption.


In any case, RSDL seems to straddle the fence...

Hendy:

1/ defining and invoking the methods of interfaces really looks like
RPC, to me. Why do you claim it's not?


2/ Let's say I have the example file, and want to call the
"MyInterface#GetYou" operation ... how do I do that? What HTTP
request should then occur? Is it something like:

POST http://some.server/rest/1.0?rpcProcedure=GetYou
<...content...>


3/ 3 of the 4 "may be useful" things in the last unordered list of Sec
1.1.1 are provided natively by HTTP. You may do better to embrace
HTTP more completely rather than trying to be distinct from it.


4/ How do you handle method arguments, return-values and data-types? I
don't think you can have RSDL without having RIDL; in fact I think
they're really one-in-the-same.


5/ The variability introduced by spec language like that of the bullet
point beginning with "Listing a method that isn't..." is a Bad
Thing; it only makes life more complicated. I'd propose:
"The <interface> attribute of the <method> element is required."

You make a vague slight against RDF in 1.1.2, but you should really take
a deeper look at it; you're sharing a lot with it, both in semantics and
syntax.

You should also look at RDF Forms [2], which does something similar.

[1]
http://asynchronous.org/blog/archives/2005/02/11/amazons_restless_ws_api.html
[2] http://www.markbaker.ca/2003/05/RDF-Forms/

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