Re: Self-descriptive messages

<ok, copying my reply here as this is a better place for this convo>

I am not at all convinced that the "self-describing" sub-constraint called
out by Fielding has anything at all to do w/ state (app, client, or
server). Instead, I assert that the "self-describing messages" (SDM)
constraint is applied at the protocol (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, XMPP, etc.) level.

IOW, SDMs exist w/o any "knowledge" of the problem-domain being expressed
by that message and SDMs have no role in assuring any problem-domain level
semantics, just network level semantics. Looked at another way, you can
have SDMs in a stateful arch model and you can have stateless arch model
where there are no self-describing messages.


mca
http://amundsen.com/blog/
http://twitter.com@mamund
http://mamund.com/foaf.rdf#me




On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 8:29 PM, Mark Baker <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Hey Darrel. I think I did answer your question, at least by addressing the
> most subtle point you raised in the sku message. I hope its clear after
> reading my explanation that your last message was not self descriptive
> because you used the text/uri-list media type. Also, you'd find that
> designing a media type to be able to self-descriptively encapsulate
> everything you need to know about a shopping cart in a single URI, is
> intractable. It makes for an interesting thought exercise but is
> practically unworkable.
>
> P.s. never too late to change the subject line :-)
> Mark.
>
>
>