[XML-SIG] WSDL library ?

[Paul Prescod]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> 
>...
> 
> I'm not sure I agree, based on recent experiences from a large REST-
> based system -- given the right tools, writing a thin interface layer for
> a REST-style protocol is not much harder than writing a bunch of XML-
> RPC calls.

Well we're just splitting very thin hairs here, but the nice thing about
RPC is that you put the API on the wire so that the client doesn't need
even a thin interface layer. This matters because distributing a thin
interface layer to Java, Python, Perl and C++ clients could be a pain.

> (well, I guess you could save some time if you use something like xmlrpclib,
> and don't have to write any documentation or test cases, ... but compared
> to SOAP+WSDL, REST+simple tools is far easier to use -- at least for people
> with small brains, like me ;-)

If you were a C# programmer, you might feel otherwise. In theory they
just hit a button to generate their RPC interface and it handles all
marshalling and unmarshalling for them. In theory.

> > Many people agree with me thus far. I happen to be among a small
> > minority that thinks that the logical endpoint of this is:
> >
> > stock = http.GET("http://www.stocks.com/%(stockquote)s/%(some_date)s")
> 
> well, if it's any help, I know you're right.

Despite the fact that I think you're a very smart guy, we hardly ever
agree on anything. Is it too late for me to become a fan of RPC? ;)

 Paul Prescod