I prefer the term "service" as in service-oriented architecture but unfortunately that term has become so aligned with the nightmare complexity of web-services that the term is distinctly unfashionable. But a standalone, autonomous, platform-neutral, re-usable, location-independent function is a service - regardless of whether is it REST or SOAP or CORBA or whatever.
API has come to mean a publicly exposed function (or set of functions) that are usually REST, but sometimes SOAP and usually some form of XML or JSON over HTTP. These APIs are nonetheless services. I've seen endpoint used as a synonym of API, but within the SOA paradigm and endpoint is an instance of a service running at some physical location specified by a URL. So two instances of the same service (e.g. weather forecast) might be available at two endpoints. Protocol is more problematic since it is used in a lot of places to mean a lot of things. I'd prefer not to overlay it even more as a synonym for API or service. Regards, Saul On 11 May 2013 00:22, Grant Holland <grant.holland...@gmail.com> wrote: > Each of these terms (API, protocol, endpoint) often connotes different > expectations about the relationships and responsibilities of the > participants. For example, is there expected to be asymmetric > responsibilities (e.g. client-server) between them?, What about any implied > "contract" between them? What about cardinality (APIs are generally > one-to-one, whereas endpoints may be many-to-one, e.g publish and > subscribe). What about the potential for concurrency? > > So there are many considerations and properties that each of these may > imply or for which there may be differentiating expectations based upon the > milieu in which each originated (OOP, network communications, distributed > objects, etc.). > > In other words, the usage of these terms is not really interchangeable. > > > On 5/10/13 8:09 AM, glen e p ropella wrote: > >> On 05/10/2013 07:04 AM, Stephen Guerin wrote: >> >>> I'm seeing a rise in the use of "endpoints". Eg REST, SOAP and WMS >>> endpoints >>> >> Do you mean in the sense of leaves of a graph? >> >> > > ==============================**============================== > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/**listinfo/friam_redfish.com<http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com> > -- Saul Caganoff Enterprise IT Architect Mobile: +61 410 430 809 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scaganoff
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