Actually, one thing I forgot (hit send too soon I guess) is that REST is definitely tied to HTTP but SOAP is not.
Some might consider this a liability but until the entire world uses HTTP for everything (which I admit is a possibility, but will take a long time if ever), SOAP over other communication transports has a place. And in the heterogeneous communications protocol/data format world, it is definitely possible to implement REST style behavior (at least the main part of it), i.e. sending XML documents around using the SOAP document style and packing/unpacking them at the endpoints, behind the interfaces, and interpreting them dynamically etc. as with any XML. I do understand, and believe me there has been a lot of posting on this, that the current tools available from vendors tend to treat SOAP based applications as a kind of extension of OO RPCs, and this is understandable from the point of view of evolution (rather than revolution), but it is not consistent with the overall design goals of XML and the HTTP-extension called SOAP. I am just not among those who characterize the specifications according to their current implementations - I think the tools can and will be improved (and let's get rid of those UML based tools while we're at it ;-). If you stick to what's in the specs, and what's possible to implement (as some are starting to), you can get very close to REST behavior. For me you can get close enough that the difference does not really matter. Can REST be done using other communications protocols? I would say yes. Eric ----- Original Message ---- From: Stefan Tilkov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 4:06:09 PM Subject: Re: [service-orientated-architecture] The end of SOAP On Dec 20, 2006, at 7:21 PM, Eric Newcomer wrote: > > Yes, I believe you can accomplish most, if not all, of the goals of > REST using SOAP. Yes, you could, if WS-Transfer were as widespread as HTTP. > The single major bone of contention remaining would be the use of > custom vs standard interfaces. Personally I do not see a big > problem using custom interfaces, so I don't think that's a roadblock. > Stefan -- Stefan Tilkov, http://www.innoq. com/blog/ st/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
