[XML-SIG] WSDL library ?
> > One of thing things that I really like about XML-RPC is that it is easy
>> > to use from many languages, including statically typed ones like C. I
>> > think that is because all of the XML-RPC types are reasonably easy to
>> > deal with in C and the fixed format allows almost all of the
>> > marshalling/unmarshalling logic to be done at the library level.
>>
>>
>> Same for SOAP.
>>
>> One of the things I like about SOAP RPC encoding is that you can tell
>> the difference between
>> char *p, *q;
>> p = q = "hello";
>> and this:
>> p = "hello"; q = strdup(p); (01)
Again the multi-reference hack. (02)
This is an semantics-of-value/lifecycle issue. Experience in distributed
computing quickly makes it clear that handling semantics of IDs, values and
references is probably the hardest problem in that space, and that handling
data lifecycles is probably the second hardest. It amazes me that the SOAP
designers think that this puny facility can really clean up the differing
semantics you sketch in your code example above. (03)
Of course, I'be never seen a much more complex Web service than a stock quote
getter, or the Captain Haddock curse generator, so one can't even evaluate
this extravagant claim in the light of a successful test case. (04)
Man, even CORBA and DCOM would be easy if you didn't have to worry about state
on either end. I think a CORBA Captain Haddock would take up even fewer lines
of code than a SOAP Captain Haddock. (05)
--
Uche Ogbuji Principal Consultant
uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com +1 303 583 9900 x 101
Fourthought, Inc. http://Fourthought.com
4735 East Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80301-2537, USA
XML strategy, XML tools (http://4Suite.org), knowledge management (06)