[DotGNU]Re: [arch-users] In defense of (the idea of) having an XML-RPC api

[Norbert Bollow]

> --- Karel Gardas <address@hidden> wrote:
> > Whole WebServices idea is overhyped, reinvent a wheel, idea commint
> > from M$ just to `invent' yet another middleware to attack their
> > competitors.

I don't like MS any more than you do, and much of what they
"invented" is supported in DotGNU only for the sake of portability.

However, I'd like to defend XMLRPC from these attacks.  Whether or
not it was invented by MS is irrelevant (it wasn't), what is relevant
is that the concept of having a simple standard protocol for remote
procedure calls is very useful for many kinds of system integration
tasks.  For example I have just been involved in a little consulting
project in which we integrated some custom website stuff (written in
PHP) with Request Tracker which is written in Perl.  In order to
integrate them we added XMLRPC interfaces to both, when are then used
from the other program.  In this case we're both the PHP system and
the Perl-based system are running on the same computer and XMLRPC is
used to let them communicate with each other via the loopback interface.

While XMLRPC isn't adequate for everything, for many "ask a remote
computer to do something" purposes it gives everything that you want.
Adding XMLRPC interfaces to Free Software programs is a good idea IMO
whenever remote users or remote programs might want to do something
with them.  In my eyes, when making the choice between using cvs or
arch or one of the other alternatives (a choice that I'll have to make
again soon for a new project) whether or not the system has a good
XMLRPC interface is an important consideration.

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch