[cap-talk] an attempt at web-calculus in a paragraph for hackers

[Toby Murray]

(I'm writing this as I go, so it'll probably come out a fair bit rougher 
than it should)
Some of this might also be technically incorrect -- I'm not totally 
across the web-calculus in detail. I'm also pretty unfamiliar with 
web-services in general. My aplogies in advance.

The web-calculus is a web services framework that is both inherently 
simple and secure. It is particuarly useful for developing 
next-generation applications that require tight access controls without 
the need for current usability-inhibiting security technologies, such as 
passwords. In the Waterken implementation, web-calculus services are 
written by constructing java objects, whose interfaces are automatically 
exposed to the web browser via HTTP GET requests, and whose methods may 
be invoked using HTTP POST requests. User interfaces, rendered by the 
web-browser, are constructed by employing XSL transformations. The 
automatic mapping of java objects onto the HTTP protocol provides a 
number of advantages. Firstly, it provides a powerful web-services 
platform for object-oriented programmers that may be otherwise 
unfamiliar with web-services development. Secondly, it provides a 
natural path by which current Java applications can be migrated to the 
web, allowing developers to take advantage of the growing popularity of 
the web-services platform while being able to make use of an existing 
codebase. Finally, it exposes the natural powers inherent in the Java 
object model to the web,.particularly reflection. This enables the basic 
protocol to be kept incredibly simple, since all it needs to support is 
method invocation (HTTP POST requests) and object introspection (HTTP 
GET requests). As such, the web-calculus is vastly simpler than current 
standards such as SOAP and XML-RPC, but is at leat as powerful.




-- 
Toby Murray
Advanced Computer Capabilities Group
Information Networks Division
DSTO, Australia

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