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More is more

djberg96 on 2004-08-12T15:59:28

C.R. Sandeep recently blogged about using SOAP (with Python). In response I asked, "Why use SOAP over XML-RPC for simple data types?".

His reply is telling - it's headed towards W3C "standardization" and it's being backed by IBM and Microsoft. Note that the word "better" does not appear. Then he links me to this article. I thought this comment from the article was interesting:

As usual though, MS has decided that they don't need to adhere to the whole spec. In their SOAP for Java SDK they modify the namespace (which breaks some other implementations), use a limited combination of 1.0 and 1.1 fault codes (and improperly document it), and include many serious bugs.
Show of hands - how many web services have you come across that actually required SOAP? I have yet to come across one here at work. So far it's been nothing but the simple data types that XML-RPC supports.

But, hey, SOAP is more complex and has corporate backing so it *MUST* be better, right? The Java mentality strikes again.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

REST

Dom2 on 2004-08-12T16:20:56

Personally, I prefer REST to SOAP or XMLRPC. It's a whole lot simpler, does what you expect and doesn't involve SOAP::Lite.

Of course it gives the Java/C++/C# folks fits because it doesn't neceessarily have any type information associated with it.

-Dom

REST

perrin on 2004-08-12T20:13:25

I would second the vote for REST. Much easier. However, I think the SOAP supporters have a legitimate case here. When you are looking for an interoperability protocol, broad industry support is one of the most important factors. It's kind of the point of the whole thing. If you have control over both ends and don't need to worry about interacting with Java and MS stuff, then you don't need to use web services at all.

It's sad, really

irq2 on 2004-08-16T12:10:33

But, hey, SOAP is more complex and has corporate backing so it *MUST* be better, right? The Java mentality strikes again.

Dan, you're right about the Java mentality here ;-)

I myself am a beginner to SOAP; when I was googling for articles on SOAP vs. XMLRPC, I found the link to that article.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. :-))

-- Sandeep http://sandeep.weblogs.us/

Re:It's sad, really

irq2 on 2004-08-16T12:12:26

Ok, something's wrong with the formatting in the above comment. Sorry about that. Whatever's in italics is quoted from your post.