spirilis 1,265 Posted July 17, 2013 Share Posted July 17, 2013 ... There is one API to rule them all. http://foaas.herokuapp.com/ It even includes Linus Torvalds-style insults! bluehash and Fred 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roadrunner84 466 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Well, it seems you don't like RESTful, hmm? REST is useful, but it should not be used in inappropriate manners. REST is a way to access simple data structures via HTTP, not a way to access any data over HTTP, although it is possible. There is no real sense in making every response in a forum accessible via REST, although you could. You could read it via GET, post it via POST and alter it via PUT. Then make the topic readable via a GET one level up, etcetera. This is needlessly complex and doesn't do much good to the strength of REST. If I'd have a IoT sensor (Internet of Things, not to be confused with Sensor Network) I could read the current temperature via a GET, get a history of the log via GET, or flush the log via DELETE. REST may seem excessive, but it enables M2M communications in a clearly defined way that is also fully compatible with internet technologies. When I say internet technologies I want to point out that the internet is more than a worldwide network of TCP enabled machines, it is a worldwide network of HTTP/HTML enabled machines too. The strength of the internet is not only the network, but also the protocols. Before HTTP/HTML we had Gopher, newsgroups, BBS' and a lot more. All of these died (except maybe newsgroups for a subset of its former features), they didn't die because they used older networks, they died because they were superseeded by HTTP/HTML. HTML isn't good per se, but it is so simple and so flexible that it allows for all our current applications in a compatible manner. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pabigot 355 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 There's also the conflict between what the general software/services community understands REST to be, and what it really is. For example, it has nothing inherently to do with simple data structures or HTTP, and it really is a way to efficiently access any data over a distributed network without needing to know much more than an identifier. Before tossing the whole thing out, go read Fielding's dissertation. It's an awesomely clean architectural style, but applying it properly is a lot harder than people think and involves understanding a large number of architectural constraints and elements. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I think you guys may be taking it a little too seriously. oPossum, spirilis, pabigot and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dragospd 0 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Too seriously indeed Quote Link to post Share on other sites
t0mpr1c3 91 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I don't have a problem with what Roadrunner said. This API seems very enabling for networked devices, especially ones based in New York City. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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