Re: [apps-discuss] JSON Hypertext Application Language

[Mike Kelly <[e-mail]>]

On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 2:04 AM, James M Snell <[e-mail]> wrote:
> HAL will just be way too verbose to be practical.

I think 'way too verbose' is overstating the importance of this. You
are the first person to raise this as an issue at all, let alone as a
significant one.

Link Objects are necessary to allow for the "templated" indicator (for
when the link is a URI Template), for including the additional link
params established in the Web Linking RFC, and to provide the
opportunity for extension of link objects in any future types wanting
to extend HAL e.g. by adding additional controls or hints.

Fwiw, I did actually consider also adding a direct string as you have
suggested here but decided against in the interests of
simplicity/consistency, given that the Link Object approach is
unavoidable (for the reasons stated above).

On another note - HAL has been established for a while now (as a less
formal, public specification) and has a growing list of server and
client tooling, seems to me like it would be a win for Activity
Streams to adopt HAL's already established conventions, given that
your recent new proposal is so close to it anyway.

Cheers,
M