RE: [Pythoncard-users] fwd: The Pros and Cons of XML

[Kevin A. <al...@se...>]

I basically agree with what Skip had to say below. Just for reference sake,
here are some more XML-RPC and SOAP links for those that want to investigate
further.

A Busy Developer's Guide to SOAP 1.1
http://www.soapware.org/bdg

XML-RPC Home Page
http://www.xmlrpc.com/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pyt...@li...
> [mailto:pyt...@li...]On Behalf Of Skip
> Montanaro
> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 11:54 AM
> To: pyt...@li...
> Subject: Re: [Pythoncard-users] fwd: The Pros and Cons of XML
>
>
>
> (apologies if you receive this multiple times - i've been having mail
> problems - originally sent 12 Sep 2001 13:50:11)
>
> (I am still having trouble sending to this list.  I originally posted this
> note on September 7th but haven't seen it turn up expect as a mail bounce.
> In some sense this is simply a test.  My apologies if you're seeing this
> message twice.)
>
>     Kevin> At some point we are going to support XML, at least for
>     Kevin> import/export and possibly the resource format. It
> will certainly
>     Kevin> be used for any XML-RPC or SOAP connectivity, which is probably
>     Kevin> how PythonCard apps are going to talk to the rest of
> the world in
>     Kevin> a standard way.
>
> I think there is an important distinction to make between SOAP and XML-RPC
> on the one hand, and things like storing Pythoncard resource
> files in XML on
> the other hand.  From the programmer's standpoint, SOAP and
> XML-RPC are just
> RPC protocols.  I've been using XML-RPC for about three years now, and the
> only time I've ever looked at the raw XML was when I was mucking about in
> the xmlrpclib.py implementation and screwed something up.  My clients and
> servers pass tens of thousands of messages back and forth every day and I
> never pay any attention to the XML.  In other words, from the
> standpoint of
> Pythoncard users or developers, SOAP and XML-RPC might as well be using
> paper tapes encoded in Morse code, tied to the legs of carrier pigeons to
> get the data back and forth.  There are issues of bandwidth usage and the
> costs to marshal and unmarshal data with SOAP and XML-RPC, but they aren't
> insurmountable, and really only come into play if you are
> transferring lots
> of data.  (They would often be problems with other RPC encodings as well.)
>
> The October issue of WebTechniques magazine (not available online until
> September 12) has an article about SOAP.  It posts the obligatory
> XML for a
> simple request and response.  No code was posted (that I recall)
> showing how
> to make a SOAP call from Perl or Python.  In my mind, by dwelling on the
> transport encoding the article completely misses the point of
> using SOAP (or
> XML-RPC or ORBit or Fnorb or ...), which is that for the application
> programmer, they make RPC programming drop dead easy.
>
> All the pros and cons of XML will only come into play when you have to
> invent an XML encoding for, say, Pythoncard resource data.  I would only
> worry about most of the Pros and Cons listed in the Zapthink
> article in that
> light.
>
> All that said, the Zapthink article does look like a good contrast of the
> pros and cons of XML.
>
> --
> Skip Montanaro (sk...@po...)
> http://www.mojam.com/
> http://www.musi-cal.com/
>
>
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