feedWhy use Atompub
October 18, 2007 | 
co.mments
Question from Sergey Beryozkin: "The difficult question is when is it really worth using Atom Pub as an application level protocol of choice ? Just because there're Atom-enabled client tools out there ? So far I feel it matters only when the generic tools are targeted, but I may be wrong."
Answer from Sergey Beryozkin: "What really surprises me in all those debates about which style of building web services wins is that very rarely, if ever, the consumer's ability to ignore unknown extensions, aka forward compatibility, is mentioned as an absolutely key ingredient."
There are other reasons to adopt Atompub, but mustIgnore (aka mI) is critical.
The mustIgnore poiicy is why I can't get behind the Atompub features draft. It enables a mustUnderstand policy, and thus it seems to me, dredges up some of what was badly wrong with WS-* technology. The draft proponents are convinced they need it.
As an aside, it's fascinating to watch REST awareness grow amongst enterprise technologists. I await the day when an enterprise architect lectures me in a meeting on not getting the REST style; as opposed to being dismissed as a fool for suggesting it (as might have happened any time in the last 6/7 years when WS-* and SOA represented orthodoxy).
Since I work in the mobile/web space, I should say that technologies like Atom/Atompub will be transformative there. That market is keenly interested in Web2.0 stuff like social networking, APIs, etc. The focus is mostly on the front end customer-facing systems, but I think there will be big wins in applying REST architectural precepts to the messaging backplanes, such as MM7 gateways and integrating with things like provisioning and authentication systems.
October 18, 2007 10:35 PM