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Because it isn't just Microsoft. That is the kind
of argument that steers this away from a technical
discussion into a bar room brawl. If it were just
Microsoft, that would be an issue given their
installation ubiquity, but it isn't. There are
what, a hundred, WSI-O members? That is a lot
of ubiks.
There are real technical differences and those do
matter but to whom and for what is beginning to
become murky. There is a lot of code shipping
based on SOAP. There is an upgrade for SOAP (1.2)
and critical papers on critical support needed
(eg, a security framework). All of that work
is going forward with or without the W3C or the TAG.
IMO, there are two issues of importance:
1. Will SOAP be rearchitected to become RESTful
or will SOAP continue to evolve as a separate
architecture?
2. Where will decisions about that be made?
How one is decided will likely influence two.
The emergence of the W3C proved just how fast
established standards groups can be pushed
aside if the vendors back the new players.
Right now, that GAO report is the real 'berg
just beneath the surface. It says plainly
that the W3C, OASIS, etc. have a lot to do
to live up to their claims for XML. The case isn't
proven and the customers are about to sit
on their hands. Meanwhile, SOAP enables
every coder with a toolkit and a server to
set up business based on decisions about the
interface that they solely scope. How long
do you think it takes ant hills to overcome
a few thousand acres of cropland?
For everyone's sake, let's not pit MS and IBM
et al against the W3C. The W3C will lose. I
know that isn't the popular or trendy opinion,
but the rightfulness of Netscape was asserted
and they ended up just as irrelevant. The
superiority of ISO was asserted; ditto. By the
same rules, too: running code and rough consensus,
programmers and their customers "voting with their
feet". REST requires discipline. SOAP requires
a toolkit. How do you think a VB programmer will vote?
Don't turn off your brains. Turn them on long
enough to admit that SOAP and REST are two
different architectures, two different information
ecosystems nesting in the same medium: the Internet.
If they can be brought together, rearchitected,
que bueno. If not, don't fall on your sword or
push it into others. That doesn't make anything
better.
XML Doesn't Care about URIs or REST. That's
why it will be the survivor. Now is when
I'm glad markup won the bracket wars. When the
swords turn back into plowshares, it will still
be here.
len
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Prescod [mailto:paul@prescod.net]
Why would we ever consider technical issues when we could just
go with the flow and follow Microsoft? I guess that the rest
of us can just turn off our brains and wait for Microsoft to
bless technologies. I personally refuse to succumb either to
the oligopoly or "Neilson ratings" theories of technology.
There are real, technical differences and those differences
matter.
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