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"On the server, we can provide endpoints to clients to talk to to get or save various pieces of data"

"We can provide endpoints to clients to talk to" In this sentence, the infinitive phrase (to talk to) points to the clients or the endpoints?

or should I simply use "We can provide endpoints for clients to talk to"

What I want to say is that endpoints that clients can talk to.

Edit: "I should have made a different sentence, an endpoint is a kind of gateway for a server (backend of a website) and a client is the frontend part that interacts with those endpoints to get data"

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  • What's an "endpoint", what is a "client" are these people? In what sense do you mean "talk"?
    – James K
    Commented May 18 at 11:45
  • @JamesK edited for you
    – hwkal
    Commented May 18 at 11:51
  • I am not sure at all that your sentence is standard network lingo: We provide [different?] endpoints for clients to communicate with. Though that is right, it just doesn't sound IT and network enough.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 18 at 13:04
  • @Lambie when you send a request, you typically communicate with a specific URL path, In REST API, you would do that with their naming convention of path URL. that's what I mean
    – hwkal
    Commented May 18 at 15:21
  • 1
    Ok, well, I used to write IT bumph, and I can tell you "different" is not the word to use. One or more endpoints or multiple endpoints, The reason different does not work is that the word usually entails the idea of "different from what?" Or even "endpoints for differing functionalities". See this doc: wpgetapi.com/docs/multiple-endpoints
    – Lambie
    Commented May 19 at 12:44

2 Answers 2

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The sentence is ambiguous in that it can be parsed to mean either one, but it's clear the intent is "talk to the endpoints".

Here's a simpler example of this structure, also ambiguous, with two ways of parsing it:

Nev gave his essay [to a friend] [to proofread].
Nev gave his essay [to [a friend to proofread]].

In the first, Nev gave the essay to his friend, so the friend could proofread it. This is hopefully pretty clear and straightforward.

In the second, Nev has "a friend to proofread", and he gave his essay to that friend. This meaning is quite odd because we don't proofread friends. Also the sentence no longer indicates why he gave the friend his essay.

Your sentence has the same structure, but the verb "talk to" could apply both to the endpoint and the client. More clearly written, this is what the intent was:

On the server, we can provide different endpoints to clients. The clients can talk to the endpoints to get or save various pieces of data.

You could also parse it this way:

There are clients to talk to, and on the server, we can provide different endpoints to those clients in order (for someone??) to get or save various pieces of data.

But in the API world, it doesn't make sense to have a set of "clients to talk to" as distinct from other "clients not to talk to" or "clients to do other things with than talk". Also, this parsing doesn't indicate who would get or save the data.

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  • "...provide different endpoints [to clients] [to talk to].", " ...provide different endpoints to [clients to talk to]." context and knowledge of how APIs work would make more sense that the first sentence is what I meant.
    – hwkal
    Commented May 19 at 11:22
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"On the server, we can provide different endpoints to clients to talk to to get or save various pieces of data"

"The server can host various endpoints exposed to clients for data storage and retrieval."

  • OR -

"The server can host various endpoints exposed to clients for CRUD operations."

I am an API developer.

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4
  • can see the competition around me : /
    – hwkal
    Commented May 18 at 11:55
  • I don't think one would say "exposed" to clients there.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 18 at 13:05
  • @Lambie One would. I'm in the industry, use the phrase frequently, and see it used elsewhere frequently.
    – digimunk
    Commented May 19 at 10:15
  • but not different. That is not good. The server can host multiple endpoints that/to communicate with clients in CRUD operations.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 19 at 19:54

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