Quantum Jim's Journal: Q: What the Heck are SOAP and REST?

I'm trying to figure out what the heck REST and SOAP are and why they are useful. REST seems to be just the advice 'Use IETF and W3C standards.' What's the difference between that and the Architecture of the World Wide Web? SOAP seems to be just HTTP serialized as XML. Is that all it is? So what's the point! I really want to know the answer to these questions.

Not sure about REST, but

[mekkab]

I think yr on the money in terms of SOAP. Like, thats it. XML object over port 80. Services over port 80. VIRUSES over port 80*. Give your net-admin a headache. News at 11.

*-well, maybe.

REST vs. SOAP

[booch]

You've pretty much got it. Really, there isn't all that much to REST. I think the point is that you don't need to re-invent what HTTP and URLs already do. Just base your API on URIs and raw XML. Or even HTML, if you're into the "lowercase semantic web", which is fairly related to REST. So, your API would be something like http://example.com/pigs/squeaky?speed=2&strength= 3 . Although that should actually be a POST to fit the REST sematics of updating something, not a GET. Then to get the current status

Writing skills

[booch]

I found you by way of your threads on grabbing arbitrary data files via IE. (Which I found on the IE7 pages.) I saw your questions about writing documentation, but that thread is closed. So this is my response.

I think your writing is actually pretty good. At least above average. So my first piece of advice to you would be to not be so hard on yourself and trust your skills.

Second, practicing (like you've been doing on Slashdot apparently) is helpful. In fact, reading well-written text is also good. After