Hypermedia and State Machines: RESTFest 2014

[This article was written by Lorinda Brandon.]

The thing about an Unconference is that it can go in unexpected directions - as an organizer, you have to be ready for fluidity and spontaneity. At RESTFest, the format of the Unconference lends itself well to an emergent theme because, in addition to voluntary extended talks, each attendee has a #FiveInFive slot (5 slides in 5 minutes). That means you get to hear from all the voices in the room, not just the most familiar voices in the API world. RESTFest has a distinct reputation for being a hypermedia-focused event (partially because one of the organizer's is Mike Amundsen), so we all arrived expecting lots of juicy hypermedia goodness.

.@RESTfest, home of the #hypermedia#api dreamers. Curious to see what everyone has been working on.... https://t.co/sJOfF1OpH4

— J(a)son Harmon (@jharmn) September 27, 2014

We weren't disappointed. Of course, there was a dominance of hypermedia discussion even from the opening Hack Day where participants were asked to bring their "best Hypermedia skills" and compete in an app bake-off. After Hack Day came Stack Day, where we started the day with some tool demos and discussions, most of which centered on tools in the hypermedia space, including a cool new open source IoT platform from Apigee called Zetta.

@mdobs kicking off StackDay at @restfest showing of the #zetta IoT framework. pic.twitter.com/L2Lsqi9aHA

— Mike Amundsen (@mamund) September 26, 2014

By the time we got to Friday afternoon, the tone was set - this wasn't just about hypermedia... this was about innovation, change, AND hypermedia. After lunch, we started the #FiveInFive talks, many of which focused on hypermedia. For those of you who missed these amazing brain dumps, the RESTFest Video project captures all of the action. 

Probably one of the most creative explorations of hypermedia was @CameronByTheWay's demo of hyper-JSON with two brain-dead robots competing in a game of chess.

Another JSON-based media type for hypermedia \ hyper-json \ that allows two bots to play chess! \ https://t.co/PzvmwHdL8L#restfest

— Steve Brownlee (@nashvillecoder) September 26, 2014

Pretty cool: bots w/ no idea of chess rules play against each other #RESTfest#hyperJSON@CameronBythewaypic.twitter.com/D4TtySaoPJ

— Phil Marsteau (@marsteau) September 26, 2014

Coolest hypermedia demo I've ever seen. @CameronBytheway showed two bots playing hypermedia-driven chess @restfest

— Joel Clermont (@jclermont) September 26, 2014

But in both the hypermedia-focused talks and some of the other topics, one thread kept weaving in and out. this year's surprise reverberation was state machines. It's not far afield from the expected hypermedia discussion but the dominance of the thread from one talk to another surprised many of us. We got a mind-exploding keynote on the topic from @SeanCribbs, which left many of us wondering if we'd had enough coffee to comprehend his talk.

@restfest coffee + donuts + finite state machine definitions for #HTTP@seancribbs keynote in full swing. Brain hurts so good!

— bigbluehat (@bigbluehat) September 27, 2014

Crazy decomposition of the HTTP state machine #restfest#http@seancribbspic.twitter.com/Z2EYMZSpln

— Phil Marsteau (@marsteau) September 27, 2014

Denotational semantics and donuts during the keynote. Another reason to love @restfest.

— λarry Staton Jr. (@statonjr) September 26, 2014

@seancribbs is diving into denotational semantics as a way of talking about HTTP #mindBlown@restfest

— Mike Amundsen (@mamund) September 26, 2014

Indeed. RT @bigbluehat: @rzazueta great minds hurt a like, I guess. ^_^ Re: @seancribbs@restfest keynote of awesomeness

— rzazueta (@rzazueta) September 27, 2014

On Saturday, we picked up the discussion and got a chance to hear more about some of the concepts from Friday. Kevin Swiber shared more details about Zetta about how they handle reactive programming on the platform. His talk brought forward the specific concerns about the IoT and having to manage state transitions for devices reactively.

“@AdamMagaluk: @kevinswiber dropping the mic on reactive hypermedia at @restfest. @zettajspic.twitter.com/uUtTwrMVpd”

— Zetta (@zettajs) September 27, 2014

The #IOT leads to answering distributed questions. And a proprietary approach just won’t work. @kevinswiber@restfest

— rzazueta (@rzazueta) September 27, 2014

Recurring theme here at @restfest - resources as state machines. @kevinswiber talking abt its necessity in #IoT

— Lorinda Brandon (@lindybrandon) September 27, 2014

Hey kids. This weekend’s secret word is “State Machines” AAAHHHHH!!! @restfest

— rzazueta (@rzazueta) September 27, 2014

It all really came together, though, when Erik Morgensen stood up to present state charts for designing UI, in which we got to watch the construction and evolution of Moooogle, @mogsie's search engine, and learn how to inform your UI through a finite state machine.

A wonderful demo of state charts by @mogsie from @restfest 2014. The lack of code is stunning & the cow hilarious https://t.co/ppmeR601oG

— J(a)son Harmon (@jharmn) September 29, 2014

The finite state machine for search. @mogsie@restfestpic.twitter.com/DvnAfNJ6HI

— J(a)son Harmon (@jharmn) September 27, 2014

really enjoying @mogsie's State Machine talk @restfest#SCXML descriptive doc format for state machines http://t.co/YrxnQYNq1H

— bigbluehat (@bigbluehat) September 27, 2014

@lindybrandon@restfest When the state machine is used to drive the UI so many things come together.

— Erik Mogensen (@mogsie) September 27, 2014

Statecharts = state machines within state machines. It's state machine inception, and I get it. @mogsie@restfest

— J(a)son Harmon (@jharmn) September 27, 2014

Discovering the old new at #restfest. Thinking in state machines makes for clear debugging, QA, and business logic. Exciting opportunities.

— Luke Stokes (@lukestokes) September 28, 2014

Excellent point - use the state machine as a communication between devs & testers to inform tests. Love this talk by @mogsie at @restfest

— Lorinda Brandon (@lindybrandon) September 27, 2014

But don't think for a minute that this was all work, no play. While we never stopped debating the use of hypermedia and its implications, sometimes we did so while drinking beer and wearing swag hats.

. @restfest closing party in full swing @ Liberty Taproom At The Field http://t.co/NfvGl0e3jg

— Sean Cribbs (@seancribbs) September 27, 2014

Like many of the attendees, I still carry elements of RESTFest around in my head. If you have the opportunity to attend it, don't hesitate. Warm and friendly, but at the same time smart and challenging, RESTFest will change the way you look at conferences (and maybe the world).

@seancribbs @mogsie thanks to you two, I can no longer see any word ending in -ing without thinking about State Machines @restfest ;)

— bigbluehat (@bigbluehat) September 29, 2014

@bigbluehat @seancribbs @restfest This means you're being bombarded with events that keep taking you into the "Thinking" state. #ducks

— Erik Mogensen (@mogsie) September 29, 2014