xml-dev - Re: XML-RPC or SOAP

[Henrik Frystyk Nielsen <frystyk@microsoft.com>]

> SOAP may be more 'advanced', but XML-RPC is very convenient and easy to
> learn.  For small projects, and maybe even for some relatively simple
big
> projects, XML-RPC makes a lot of sense.
>
> (I like to say that XML-RPC gives you enough rope to hang yourself, but
> SOAP gives you enough rope to hang yourself and a lot of other people
too.
> Rope is, of course, useful for other things as well!)

Without judging xml-rpc at all, the comments on SOAP are as often is the
case for catchy statements not correct and I would encourage you not to
paint this picture.

The main generalizations that SOAP provide are that

    a) it is a one message that can be used for RPC as well as other
things
    b) it is not bound to HTTP in any particular way

As a wire protocol, SOAP doesn't anticipate any particular programming
style or environment and is as such close to HTTP in spirit although it
certainly takes into account what we have leaned from HTTP over the last x
years. An example is the modularity that we get from having a well-defined
core and features that use that core being separate.

Henrik