IBM Donates Web Services Invocation Framework to Apache

SharkaRockz writes "IBM recently donated the Web Service Invocation Framework (WSIF) to Apache.org. This article explains the WSIF donation and what it can do. WSIF is a simple Java API that allows both SOAP and non-SOAP services to be described and used in a common way thus allowing developers to make Web services without the constraints of SOAP."

Comments

dirty developers

[wompser]

sniff, sniff.... don't all developers go without the restraints of soap?

IBM should know better...

[Jon Howard]

...than to drop the soap for someone who wants to swing both ways!

;)

Re:IBM donates Web Services Invocation Framework t

[Hard_Code]

It is probably due to a limitation in subject leng

Historical Irony

[fm6]

I guess you have to be as old as I am to ignore the lame puns and notice the irony of IBM's role in the Open Source movement. Time was when IBM was super-proprietary -- they even had their own character code. But when mainframes went away, all of IBM exclusive tech went with it, and they became just another player in the microcomputer market. Now they're giving their tech way in order to get it accepted as a standard!

Re:Historical Irony

[alizard]

Just where did the mainframes go?

They're still alive, well, and supporting lots more Linux than any dozen or hundred (depending on mainframe size) Pentium-based boxes can.

As for their traditional roles, check any Fortune 1000 back-office IT operation...

The open source thing reflects a return to IBM's original computing roots. There was a time when the idea of making software proprietary never occurred to anybody and user group contributions were welcomed, as they expanded the range and scope of the then-new commercial and academic computers of the 50s and 60s.

Re:wow!

[ptbrown]

Why so? They advertise on Sesame Street all the time.

The need for a dynamic invocation framework

[colina]

This article might interest folks
The need for a dynamic invocation framework
http://www.webservices.org/index.php/article/artic leview/469/1/3/

Well, yeah

[fm6]

Sure there are still mainframes, just as there are still linotype machines, pulse-dial telephones, mechanically switched analog voice networks, and typewriters. But none of these dominate their markets the way they used to -- or even have any visibility to most users.

Mainframes used to be the core product for the big 8 leading U.S. computer companies. (Sometimes known as "IBM and the Seven Dwarfs.) Now all eight companies have either disappeared or drastically changed their business model. IBM, with its market dominace, was able to ignore trend towards micros longer than anybody. I've hear former IBMers complain that fear of canibalizing their mainframe market was the main reason they didn't push OS/2 hard enough.

So yeah, IBM still sells mainframes. But if they had to rely on them for their main revenue stream, as they did for several decades, they'd be in big trouble. In fact, they were in big trouble, until they gave their old management the boot and replaced them with Gerstner and his crowd -- people who knew the company had to evolve, and fast. Did you know Lou Gerstner was the first IBM CEO to use email?

Fixed, I mean FIXED Width!

[fm6]

The 80-Column Mind actually does fit a large problem domain...

No, it just knows how to maintain all the obsolete solutions that are too much trouble to replace! If it had any problem-solving skill at all, it would be off doing real development.

Back in 98, I was working with a woman who was an experienced COBOL programmer. In a company where this skill had absolutely no value. When I asked her why she wasn't off hacking Y2K bugs, for more money, she told me one word: sanity.