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I think the interesting question is: what really qualifies as a service? IMHO, a service is just a program someone else manages running on a server, that I can

I think the interesting question is: what really qualifies as a service? IMHO, a service is just a program someone else manages running on a server, that I can use remotely with a REST API. In college, in the 80's, I used the symbolic math program Maple on an MTS mainframe. Is Maple a service? I say no, only because services tend to be web related, they have a REST API accessed with HTTP. But if Maple supported a REST endpoint, bam, its a service. In this OPs example, the "service" API is email, not HTTP. But it achieves the same goal. What I think the OP misses is: who the heck wants to log on to the server and tweak the site content from the unix prompt when there is an API?

sodimel 5y ago
I think it depends. For small, fast-writtent rants, txt files are great (my crap-computer-that-is-running-next-to-my-box didn't even burned when the post reached the front page of hn). I really see the point in not having to manage a whole big ecosystem by ourselves (I use gitlab, sometimes github). The rant was about using an interface on another website (not the email API) in order to submit a PR or an issue for updating a website. It's a standardized way of doing an edit (and it can be painful when you don't know github), and more and more websites are using it.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  > the rant was about using an interface on another website oh, i see. i overlooked that. thanks.
fragmede 5y ago
That's a very specific definition for service. What's going to happen to that definition when technology eventually moves past using REST APIs? A program running on your school's mainframe that you access via some sort of terminal is a computing service from before the Internet. Plenty of people use a Unix prompt to access both local and remote computers. That its not your preferred method is fine, but there are people out there that prefer it! If those command line tools are hitting the same API (eg using curl), what then?
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  Yes, that is why I pointed out that "email" is also an API. Do you think a person reads the email in the OP's note? (not being sarcastic) I'm pretty sure it triggers an update through an IFTTT-like flow / post-hook on receive.

sodimel 5y ago

I think it depends. For small, fast-writtent rants, txt files are great (my crap-computer-that-is-running-next-to-my-box didn't even burned when the post reached the front page of hn). I really see the point in not having to manage a whole big ecosystem by ourselves (I use gitlab, sometimes github). The rant was about using an interface on another website (not the email API) in order to submit a PR or an issue for updating a website. It's a standardized way of doing an edit (and it can be painful when you don't know github), and more and more websites are using it.

SavantIdiot 5y ago
> the rant was about using an interface on another website oh, i see. i overlooked that. thanks.

fragmede 5y ago

That's a very specific definition for service. What's going to happen to that definition when technology eventually moves past using REST APIs? A program running on your school's mainframe that you access via some sort of terminal is a computing service from before the Internet. Plenty of people use a Unix prompt to access both local and remote computers. That its not your preferred method is fine, but there are people out there that prefer it! If those command line tools are hitting the same API (eg using curl), what then?

SavantIdiot 5y ago
Yes, that is why I pointed out that "email" is also an API. Do you think a person reads the email in the OP's note? (not being sarcastic) I'm pretty sure it triggers an update through an IFTTT-like flow / post-hook on receive.