Slashdot Mirror
ESR On XML-RPC
daveuserland writes "Eric S. Raymond has discovered our XML-RPC project, going strong since early 1998. I don't think XML-RPC has ever been discussed on Slashdot. It's one of the most ambitious and successful open source projects, but not from the usual suspects. Raymond says: "XML-RPC is very much in the Unix spirit. It's deliberately minimalist but nevertheless quite powerful, offering a way for the vast majority of RPC applications that can get by on passing around boolean/integer/float/string datatypes to do their thing in a way that is lightweight and easy to to understand and monitor. This simple type ontology acts as a valuable check on interface complexity.""
How about this: /etc/termcap
$less
######## TERMINAL TYPE DESCRIPTIONS SOURCE FILE
#
# Version 11.0.1
# $Date: 2000/03/02 15:51:11 $
# termcap syntax
#
# Eric S. Raymond (current maintainer)
# John Kunze, Berkeley
# Craig Leres, Berkeley
#
# Please e-mail changes to terminfo@thyrsus.com; the old termcap@berkeley.edu
# address is no longer valid. The latest version can always be found at
# .
You'll see it from time to time, Eric did this little bit, Eric did this little bit. He shows up on linux-kernel from time to time. It adds up. Have you looked at termcap recently? JHC, I wouldn't touch that nonsense with a 10 foot pole. But he does. Same goes for his rewrite of the kernel configuration file system. Nutso stuff that is way beyond either of our abilities (admit it, you lamer), and he's working on it right now. I may not be the biggest ESR fan on the planet, but he has made many positive contributions, and his heart is in the right place.
So, despite the community's protest that people are needed to do things other than write code, the one criterion that you express is that what ESR wrote ISN'T HARD ENOUGH. And then you get modded up in a reply, suggesting that the community agrees with you. You know, the most damning writers at ZD have figured it out. The open source community ensures that end users are systematically locked out. The community has a genuine contempt, not only for "users", but also for the simple. And so it produces sendmail -- and a whole set of similar interfaces that are so complex to configure that you need more 3" thick O'Reilly books. ESR is not given some respect for having coded a utility that you don't care about. ESR is given respect because he helped a gigantic and very powerful set of users to understand the revolutionary and important nature of open source. If open source fails at its alleged "mission", we will be running Microsoft (TM) TCP-IP.NET by 2005 and the state of freedom across the world will be endangered. (OK, allow me a little melodrama.) But ESR will be responsible for holding off that state of affairs for a few years. Do you believe me? Do you care?
XML-RPC predates SOAP by a few years, and has more implementations, and has demostrated interop. SOAP, which I am also a co-author and supporter of, has not yet reached substantial interop, and this is going to be a bit difficult, but we'll get there. You're right that SOAP has more support from large companies, and that's great, but as an independent developer who doesn't want to be controlled by the large companies, I think XML-RPC provides a valuable insurance policy. I'm very happy to get ESR's endorsement of XML-RPC.
Saw this over on LinuxToday.
Zoom over to Google and put in Eric Raymond (or just check this link out). Notice the paid hotlink...
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
Yes, he has a big ego which he's not afraid to let show (at least in his writing, he may be a wallflower in person for all I know), but so do a lot of other people who have done considerably less than he has.
Sure, don't treat the guy as some kind of god, but don't ignore him just because he's not the flavour of the month any more.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)