I do not get it, Sanjiva, 'weak' and 'strict' are not antonyms. I would say that that XML Schema defines not a weak but the lower denominating data model while some others define more specialised (which does not necessary mean 'strict') models. This is why XML may be a universal intermediary. Actually, IDL also defined a universal intermediary but it was too 'techy' to attract investments from business People.
Ideally, I need a data model that can be strict or loose on demand, human readable and compact enough for effective transmission. You are saying that it is impossible having such while I see we are gradually moving toward this model. As an intermediary example - XML Schema can define a String loosely and very strictly, if needed. I need capabilities that I can use depending on the task. - Michael ________________________________ From: Sanjiva Weerawarana <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 1:33:12 AM Subject: Re: [service-orientated-architecture] Re: good or bad practice? or maybe ugly On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 11:49 PM, Michael Poulin <m3pou...@yahoo. com> wrote: >To conclude, I would like to say that, IMO, I have much more flexibility with >XML in manipulating the service interaction (message content) with already >deployed service than with other programming languages I am aware about. I agree, but only because XML has a very limited data model compared to Java/C# etc.. It simply comes down to the data model and its ability to be serialized. You can build a distributed computing system using any data model and any serialization. If you want more flexibility, then choose a data model that is less constraining. If you want more convenience, use a data model that's more constraining. If you want optimal communication performance (memory, bandwidth, time etc.) then use a very efficient serialization. If you want everyone in the world to be able to read your data on the other side, use a standard serialization. Its all a bunch of choices depending on what problem you want to solve and how you want to solve it. No one single answer is the answer to all questions. The strength of XML (data model, not XML 1.0/1.1 serialization) + WS-* is not a powerful data model or an ultra efficient serialization, but rather its weak data model (which allows it to be bound to other more strict data models) plus the universal serialization (XML angle brackets) that every vendor supports. Sanjiva. -- Sanjiva Weerawarana, Ph.D. Founder, Director & Chief Scientist; LankaSoftware Foundation; http://www.opensource.lk/ Founder, Chairman & CEO; WSO2, Inc.; http://www.wso2. com/ Member; Apache Software Foundation; http://www.apache. org/ Visiting Lecturer; University of Moratuwa; http://www.cse. mrt.ac.lk/ Blog: http://sanjiva. weerawarana. org/
