What's so simple about SOAP?

Robrt on 2003-04-08T20:38:40

Or, how does it provide Simple Access to Objects?

The more I use it for anything in a non-functional style, the more I think it's some sort of massive conspiracy.

My current feeling is: SOAP is to Corba as LDAP is to X.500.

SOAP is Simple, dammit!

ziggy on 2003-04-08T21:58:50

SOAP is simple in the sense that you don't have to buy an expensive CORBA broker, futz with firewall rules, learn how message queues work, or pay extra for cross platform interoperability. Plus, the word "Simple" makes customers (and their managers) confident that it is easier to manage and use than the Complex Object Model, its cousin the Damn Complex Object Model, or its nemesis the Complex Object Requisitioning and Buying Application.

In that sense, SOAP is very simple. Forget the fact that no two implementations fully interoperate with each other. Forget the fact that it completely abuses HTTP, security concerns and general RPC and messaging issues. You don't need to buy extra software anymore! Isn't that Simple?

FWIW, the latest version of SOAP does not have an expansion for the SOAP acronym. :-)