Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Mike Raiford wrote:
> 
>> Heh, very true. How did the idea "Hey, lets make this API available on 
>> an http service" get started anyway?
> 
> As far as I can tell, it began with Hotmail.

Nah. The first big one I remember is "pointcast", which isn't around any 
more, which goes to show. There were also a number of MMORPH-predecessors 
that went with the "they can't play the game at work if we don't run it over 
port 80."   It was a particularly annoying meme, particularly because the 
point of the firewall is to keep your application from running rampant 
behind the firewall.  It forced people to start making smarter and smarter 
firewalls just to distinguish what you're doing, and then actually looking 
into the body of data to see what kind of "I don't know what this is" that's 
being served to tell if it's a virus or an inappropriate executable or just 
some Sun java BS.

I wouldn't even say webmail is "raping" HTTP. Misusing it for full 
application interfaces, perhaps, but at least you're actually transferring 
hypertext. :-)  But you need to already have ubiquitous web browsers before 
you base an interface decision on the fact that everyone has web browsers. 
My only annoyance with HTTP for full applications is that it was never 
really intended for anything like that, and there were all kinds of much 
better solutions already out there, but those better solutions required 
people using them to actually learn something instead of hacking together a 
half-assed product and throwing it out there, so we got stuff like we have 
now instead of something usable.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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