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REST Advantages

Stefan Tilkov,

Sean McGrath writes about integration and REST:

This [REST/the Web] does not solve the general negotiation problem (which is probably unsolvable short of artificial intelligence) but brilliantly raises the integration watermark above which it becomes an issue, this significantly reduces the amount of custom coding you need to do to get a conversation going.

I can see benefits in the REST approach (ease of use, flexibility, simplicity, …). I fail to see this one, though. The amount of custom coding required is reduced compared to what? Compared to using plain sockets: yes. Compared to the much-hated, RPC-style, initial Web services approach: no.

On April 7, 2004 3:24 PM, Mark Baker said:

I assume he means handling application dispatch, since Web frameworks already do that for you. e.g. just implementing doGet() for a Servlet rather than having to manage invoke() dispatching to doGetStockQuote(). It’s not a huge deal though, IMO; the bigger deal is in avoiding the phase where you have to negotiate what “getStockQuote” means.

On April 9, 2004 11:15 AM, Stefan Tilkov said:

Sean responded: http://seanmcgrath.blogspot.com/archives/20040404seanmcgratharchive.html#108149515131024032