[REBOL] Re: Google + SOAP
From: chris:langreiter at: 21-Apr-2002 4:11
> Carl's messages can sometimes (often?) be a tease, sometimes Yoda-like.
> I don't think this one is any different.
Heh ;-) I have to agree.
> <person name="Chris" age="22"/>
You're absolutely right. I don't want to "discredit" XML either, while it
and its surrounding standards in their entirety may well be representative
of the semi-baroque bloat commitees happen to produce, it is the one
hierarchical data serialization format the world happens to have
standardized on. And that there is such a standard at all, that's most
definitely a very good thing. It could have been way way way worse and we'd
have to parse (binary!) hierarchical OLE documents if you-know-who got its
way ;-)
> Yes, though XML-RPC has issues of its own. And there are those, under
> the banner of "REST", that belive this whole XML-RPC / SOAP business is
> folly; that the HTTP verbs of GET/PUT/POST/DELETE combined with URIs
> are sufficent and superior.
In many cases (especially when the "parameter list" is flat, reasonably
short and can therefore be easily serialized to an URI), REST (fancy new
name for pretty old concepts, ain't it?) is IMO more transparent.
What I like about XML-RPC is that it defines a lowest common denominator of
data types that can be exchanged, i.e. they can be mapped to native data
types of pretty much any language with zero additional overhead for the user
(me! ;-).
Best regards,
-- Chris
