Re: RFC: REST-RPC

I took a look at REST-RPC to see how it compares to XML-RPC.  There
are some ideas I like in REST-RPC, but some of the apparently
important differences I don't understand.

Probably the most fundamental difference between the two is that
REST-RPC doesn't use XML for the call.  It uses XML for the response,
but the call is in a special language intended to go in the "parameter"
piece of an HTTP GET header (I forget the actual name of that).  Here's
an example of the HTTP traffic for a call:

  GET /?_function=GetCart&cart=1563 HTTP/1.1 
  Host: test.rest-rpc.org
  Accept: text/xml        
  Connection: close

And for the response:

  HTTP/1.1 200 OK    
  Content-Length: 114 
  Content-Type: text/xml  
  Connection: Close
  
  <result>    
     <param name="creation">20050923T123507+0100</param>
     <param name="priceAmount">60.5</param>
     <param name="priceUnits">EUR</param>
     <param name="itemCount">4</param>
     <data>       
        <item product="8923" price="12" amount="3"/>
        <item product="2108" price="24.5" amount="1"/>
     </data>    
  </result>


This is supposedly good because "[web] browsers can call such services
directly."  What does that mean?  I can see that I could type a call
into the "location" field of my browser and get the XML response on my
screen, and I can't do that with XML-RPC.  But what good is that?  Is
there some other way browsers can use REST-RPC?


One other difference pointed out is that XML-RPC lacks "Unicode
support."  What does that mean?  I know XML-RPC involves Unicode in
that it specifies XML, and XML is defined in terms of Unicode code
points.  What Unicode capability does REST-RPC have that is missing in
XML-RPC?

-- 
Bryan Henderson                                    Phone 408-621-2000
San Jose, California


 
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