RPC and REST: Dilemma, Disruption, and Displacement

straction and explained how the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style is one alternative that can yield a superior approach to building distributed systems. Because RPC is inherently tied to programming language abstractions, my May/June 2008 column also investigated multilingual programming, in which developers choose languages according to how well they actually fit the problem at hand, rather than the typical approach of choosing a popular general-purpose language and bending it to fit the problem. Choosing the right language and teaming it with a network programming style like REST can obviate the need for problematic techniques like RPC, thus letting developers build distributed systems both conveniently and correctly. Some readers agree with my conjectures and conclusions in the past several columns, and others vehemently oppose them. Although there's really nothing surprising about that, the forces that lead different readers to agree or disagree are qu...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: INTERNET
• Authors: Steve Vinoski
• Keywords: INTERNET 2008, Popular General-purpose Language, Programming, Representational State Transfer