RE: "Reliable" web services for Next Big Thing?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Baker [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 12:20 PM
> To: Champion, Mike
> Cc: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: "Reliable" web services for Next Big Thing?
> 
> 
> Well, kind of.  There are a whole lot of coordination languages out
> there, but only one is "RESTful"; the one whose coordination semantics
> are applicable to all things with identity. 

Once again, I relied on my fading memories rather than Google. Bad idea!
Sorry for the confusion.  (In my own defense, I was mainly interested in
getting discussion started, not in pontificating!)

But RESTful or not, I think there are a range of solutions to the problem of
web service "reliability" that don't presume a reliable message substrate.
Wearing my Software AG hat, I'd like to encourage the discussion. Wearing my
WSA co-chair hat, I accept that this could be a rathole and will happily
abide by the consensus of the WG if we do want to focus just on reliable
messaging for now.

> 
> BTW, it's also interesting to note that David Gelernter basically
> predicted the Web in his book MirrorWorlds (the first page, even),
> and most of his research at that time was around coordination
> languages, in particular Linda, which shares similar goals (and
> coordination semantics) to the Web.  It just wasn't as well designed.

Yes, I find Gelertner more intriguing than illuminating ... and AFAIK the
Linda papers are not on the Web anywhere, so what I know of it is mostly
secondhand. Still, I'm not clear on why GET / PUT / POST / DELETE of 
resource representations on the Web is RESTful but (using Javaspaces
terminology) read / write / take of Entries in a Space is not.