[uf-rest] "Casual Web Services" and Well Designed Urls

[Mike Schinkel]

>> Again I admit that I don't really know what REST-based Web services are. 
>> I welcome a definition, most of all from Mike Schinkel. 

Well, even though I said let's take off the list, this will be quick:

Easy: http://www.xfront.com/REST-Web-Services.html
Rigorous:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm 

>> Mike Schinkel's original message does not, by itself, break the
constraint 
>> of hypermedia as the engine of application state. I admit that I read
into 
>> the message meaning which was not explicit. Let me make my 
>> understanding explicit to allow corrections:
>> 
>> . I understand "the URL structure of a REST-based web [service] typically

>> becomes an important part of the API" as meaning that it is within REST 
>> when a manager of an origin server chooses, instead of hypermedia, 
>> natural-language documentation of the manager's allocation policies for
URIs.
>> 
>> . I understand "the URL structure of a REST-based web [service] typically

>> becomes an important part of the API" as meaning that it is within REST
when 
>> a designer of a user agent chooses, instead of programming the user agent
to 
>> seek and use hypermedia, to program the user agent with the designer's 
>> knowledge of allocation policies for URIs and with the designer's
presumptions 
>> about feasible and desirable transitions between application states.

Although I might not choose to word it quite the way you did, I'll accept
that what you implied was reasonable.  Now, can I assume you are saying that
my assertions are wrong, especially based on your prior email?  

Whatever, let's take this discussion off the Microformats list to the
mailing list specifically for the Well Designed Urls initiative that I plan
to set up in a few days.

-Mike Schinkel
http://www.mikeschinkel.com/blog
http://www.welldesignedurls.org/