[XML-SIG] WSDL library ?

[Uche Ogbuji]

> The discussion seems to be heating up a bit, so I'm gonna start to slow 
> down in terms of posting. :)  With this note I'll try to summarize some 
> things that seem to have been mis-undrestood.

Wow.  I must be getting to used to XML-DEV  :-)  I thought we were having a 
chummy palaver.


> The ability to transmit pointer-using data types (e.g, a balanced tree 
> in C/C++), to make changes on the server, and to send the new tree back 
> such that the client can reconstruct -- that can be important and 
> useful. Sure, Corba proves that you can solve real-world problems 
> without it, but that doesn't reduce its utility.  The SOAP id/href 
> technique makes that possible.  Server or client-side state has nothing 
> to do with it.

I still don't understand, and I have a feeling I won't understand until I have 
a good example.  You mention a tree.  Do you mean you ship the tree using 
SOAP, and use multi-reference to indicate parent or child pointers?  OK.  I 
understand that, but you can do the same thing using hierarchical generic 
structures.

So I guess your really convincing argument would be to do the same thing for 
more complex graphs.  Dare I suggest that RDF handles this very well?  If I 
had complex graphs that I wanted to send and XML seemed a suitable format, I'd 
use RDF.

But assume we don't have this third man poking in his head.  Even if I had to 
use CORBA, I see no reason why I wouldn't simply prefer to transmit an 
adjacency table.

Basically, I'm still having trouble seeing where I might actually be missing 
pointers in distributed programming, except in the complex life-cycle matters 
which you seme to admit are just as hard for SOAP.

Oh well, to each his POV.


> It has been more than three years since I left the COM, Corba, DCE 
> middleware trenches, and I've gladly forgotten many details, but I don't 
> believe it's possible to use Corba IIOP without using the Corba object 
> model.  Most of the distributed computing world does not use the Corba 
> object model.
> 
> As for pointers, etc., I'd like to see the IIOP serialization of a 
> doubly-linked list.

Easy: an array.


> In an earlier message I refered to XSD files at 
> http://www.zolera.com/schemas/2001/11/ ; unforunately our ISP (good ole 
> Win-chapter 11-Star) had problems, which seem to be fixed.  They are 
> real, not contrived examples, used in our Tamarin product; a server that 
> does XML signatures and encryption.

Cool.  I'll have a look.  I'm honestly intrigued.


> Pace.

Absolutely!


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                               Principal Consultant
uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com               +1 303 583 9900 x 101
Fourthought, Inc.                         http://Fourthought.com 
4735 East Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80301-2537, USA
XML strategy, XML tools (http://4Suite.org), knowledge management