On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, Lynn W. Taylor wrote:
> in the past six months it seems that the bulk of the traffic on this
> list can be divided into one of two categories. 1) How TUCOWS is doomed
> to failure because they didn't do (straight
> html/xml/soap/.net/xws/etc.).
Considering that the cruftiness of the protocol is the only thing people
often complain about OpenSRS it's hard to imagine what doom that will
cause. At least I don't have to spend hours on the phone to transfer a
domain. So Lynn, I agree, all of the whining has been quite a bit
overblown.
> 2) How TUCOWS does not fix bugs or document protocols.
Tucows has always been responsive to these sort of things in all of my
interactions. We've seen numerous protocol document tweaks come through
this very mailing list.
There seem to me to be two factors at work that have led to the utter
destruction of the signal-to-noise ratio for this list. One is that all
of the folks who don't mind getting their hands a bit dirty (and who don't
shiver at the sight of a text file that isn't XML) have figured out most
of what we need to figure out and we will be quite happy as things are for
a long time. Personally speaking, as much as web services seems really
neat and cool (and we've even used them successfully in a few places),
needing to rewrite my OpenSRS glue routines yet again doesn't sound like
much fun. I'll probably be using the old interface for at least six
months or a year after whatever new fangled thing comes out.
The other destructive factor seems to be the simultaneous advent of the
legions of web services zealots. Accepted rule one of a web service
zealot is that all shall be assimilated. This is no different than when
structured programming or objects or patterns or components came along.
Its utter nonsense that folks who have learned about the future
possibilities of some great new technical concept feel the need to
harangue those of us still happily using well-tested and stable technology
"of old". It really doesn't seem that it should need to be so, but humans
are just irritating that way sometimes. Maybe we can teach the leaders of
the next great technological revolution to make sure the zealots know that
the old ways aren't necessarily bad and in need of destruction.
OpenSRS continues to polish an already wonderful thing and I'm sorry that
so many that feel that way have given up on this mailing list. [chuckle.]
I joined this list instead of the general discussion list to avoid noise.
--
</chris>
Interoperability isn't an engineering issue, it's a business
issue. Creating the Web -- HTTP plus HTML -- was probably
the last instance where standards of global importance were
designed and implemented without commercial interference.
Standards have become too important as competitive tools to
leave them where they belong, in the hands of engineers.
Incompatibility doesn't exist because companies can't figure
out how to cooperate with one another. It exists because
they don't want to cooperate with one another.
-- Clay Shirky, 09/15/2000
