Showing posts with label SOA WOA REST composable interfaces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SOA WOA REST composable interfaces. Show all posts

Nov 25, 2008

WOA isn't for the masses

Nick Gall's note on Web Oriented Architecture--basically SOA constrained to RESTful princicples--got me thinking about the futility of end-user programmable services.

Given the difficulty even highly trained engineers have in creating good interfaces, only a select few will be able to take a list of arbitrary services and make anything like the "slightly less general interfaces" mentioned in the note. Of course, that makes it worth it, because even a tiny percentage of the web's population is still significant and can benefit all. We just shouldn't expect the nirvana where ever user is a programmer and creates a wonderful mashup of services.

I suspect instances of "serendipity" and "unexpected reuse" will exist at the services level, but will be far and few between. As far as I can tell, I'm right so far...