Talk Description
REST is a much talked about but often misunderstood architectural style. The application and benefits of REST are seen throughout the Web itself. Yet most Web frameworks focus on hiding the Web (HTTP in particular) behind an MVC facade. This creates obstacles to using what is, without question, the most successful distributed applications architecture ever devised. Waves, a Ruby architectural framework for developing more consistently with REST, attempts to remove this obstacle between the programmer and the Web.
This talk will focus on the benefits of REST and resource-oriented architecture and how Waves delivers those benefits to the programmer. We will go beyond the basic GET, PUT, POST, DELETE paradigm and into the "real" REST of content-type negotiation, layered architecture, and more. We will show examples of Waves services built using REST principals can be more easily reused and repurposed than more typical RPC-style "REST-light" services.
Bio
Dan Yoder has over two decades of experience in all aspects of the software business. He has been using Ruby for over three years and is the author of the resource-oriented Web application framework Waves as well as numerous other gems, including AutoCode, Functor, and Filebase. He has spoken on Waves at LoneStar RubyConf, RubyConf, and has been invited to speak at the first LA RubyConf. He is the Director of Development at AT&T Interactive R&D, where Ruby and Rails applications handle several million HTTP requests every day. Dan helped start the LA Ruby users' group, helping bring on AT&T Interactive as a major sponsor. His development group is also responsible for one of the first voice-enabled local search apps for the iPhone, Speak4It.