RE: SOAP and transfer/transport protocols

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Baker [mailto:distobj@acm.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 8:44 AM
> To: Champion, Mike
> Cc: www-ws-arch@w3.org
> Subject: Re: SOAP and transfer/transport protocols
> 
 
> But, wouldn't it be great if you could get company-to-company
> interaction working as frictionless as you do web-browser to 
> web-server interactions?  Not to suggest that there isn't friction, but 
> just to say that the technology in use wouldn't add to it.
> 
> That's what I thought people wanted to do with Web services, which is
> why I'm pushing so hard for a Web architecture friendly solution. 

Sure, that's more or less my vision too.  Your (and Paul Prescod's)
pushing has helped allow SOAP's HTTP binding closer to being "web 
architecture friendly."  A Web Services Architecture should allow
a smoother migration from the current "behind the firewall" stuff to 
a more open and interoperable use of service resources on the Web. 
But it MUST not force the DCOM/CORBA/MQ/etc. folks to migrate in 
one jump; that simply will not happen.  

The beauty of SOAP, IMHO, is that it is both a transport-neutral
[and I use the term advisedly!] application-level protocol and 
"just another XML format" that can be delivered using HTTP
application semantics.  RESTafarians can see the glass as being
half-empty (because it is perfectly legal for SOAP to tunnel
HTTP), but you could also see it as half-full (because SOAP lets
XML and HTTP get a foot in the door, allowing users to move to
more web-friendly scenarios once the knowledge and security
infrastructure are in place].  

Of course, it also gives SOAP itself a foot in the door so that, uhhh, some
hypothetical monopolist(s) could embrace, extend, and extinguish the Web
layer altogether. You'll just have to fight that battle when the time comes.

Received on Tuesday, 28 May 2002 08:59:10 UTC