Re: Resource definition

Mark Baker <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.web.services.ws-arch
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Tue, Feb 18, 2003 at 04:38:54PM -0800, Burdett, David wrote:
> In an earlier email, Francis McCabe said ...
> 
> >>>... to use one of Mark's earlier examples, turning on a light switch. The
> state of the light is a representable resource; no question. The action of
> flipping the switch is not so representable. The arm which is used to flip
> the switch is, however, a resource; although any representation of it in
> terms of bits is merely a symbol and not the real thing.<<<
> 
> So is the act of moving the arm to turn on/off the switch a resource?

Well, I suppose you could make it one, but I'm not sure what that
would accomplish.

One doesn't need to talk about a switch, or the movement of a switch, or
even a toggleSwitch() method, in order to effect a state change with the
bulb, because the interaction style is one of *state transfer*; if I
want to turn the bulb on, I just do a HTTP PUT containing a
representation of the "on state" to the URI identifying the lightbulb.

MB
-- 
Mark Baker.   Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.        http://www.markbaker.ca
Web architecture consulting, technical reports, evaluation & analysis
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