Confusion

What's going on with Minnesota?

Geeky Goodness

So, for the last few weeks, I've been playing with Web Services and SOAP. I've known about Web Services and SOAP since about 1999, but this is the first time I've done anything real with it.

My first prototype used Axis. Later, I got to play with BEA's Web Services support in WebLogic Server. In both cases, I was hugely impressed with how easy it was to get meaningful web services running.

Web Services are conceptually the simplest thing in the world. Send XML messages over HTTP as a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol. Brian Behlendorf once said, "XML is just one step up from ASCII", and I basically agree. And I've been espousing the opinion for some time that HTTP will eventually be the protocol -- everything will talk HTTP.

So, it surprises me that Web Services and SOAP were hard for a lot of people to buy into. I mean, sure, the idea originated with Microsoft. So, right there, you know people are going to attack it. But, back in 2000, people were just dopes about the idea. I mean, I generally think that Bruce Schneier is one of the Good Guys, but like so many others, he came out with a bunch of lame fear-mongering.