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XML Web Services: Means to an End

Posted by michael on from the not-over-until-the-closing-tag-sings dept.

An anonymous reader writes "For the second day in a row at the XML Web Services One conference here, a keynote speaker got up and signaled the impending end to the Web services era, at least on a standards level. Don Box, an architect in Microsoft Corp.'s developer division told an audience of Web services conference attendees Wednesday: 'The end of the XML Web services era is near. I predict two years from now we won't have this conference.'"

11 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. More precisely... by __aaanwh8370 · · Score: 5, Informative

    He says that the era of producing the standards is coming to an end, not the usage of the services himself...

    to quote:

    Box said XML Web services are a means to an end. "We have to get the plumbing sorted out," he said. "We have a couple more years of plumbing work, but after that we move on to applications," he said. Box said the "protocol work is starting to wind down, the infrastructure is catching up with protocols and it's time to start thinking about applications."

  2. Thinking about applications by The+Whinger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "protocol work is starting to wind down, the infrastructure is catching up with protocols and it's time to start thinking about applications."

    This quote sums up Web Services for me. The infrastructure/concept is okay ... but suitable applications aren't that obvious ... or maybe I've missed the point.

    A relative works for MS (partly promoting Web Services) and keeps telling me that we should consider creating Web Service applications and/or converting existing applications to Web Services. My standard answer is that we can't afford to run Microsoft products on remote servers, both practically and financially. But of course the real reason is that I don't want to ;). Why change what already works?

    1. Re:Thinking about applications by erasmus_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unless I'm misunderstanding you, you need to do some more research on this issue. You don't have to run Microsoft products on remote servers in order to access web services running on local ones. The whole point of this initiative is interoperability, and using XML and SOAP to have a common way of running remote applications. That means that you can invoke and use your web service from any other language that supports these specifications. In that way, it's better than DCOM not just because it works through firewalls, but also because it allows standards other than COM to govern the app communication.

      I'm also glad someone else noticed that the article isn't really predicting the end of web services, but rather the fact that it will be a fixed standard a few years from now, and developers won't even be thinking about it when they write their applications to run over the Internet. It's kind of like not having to have HTTP conventions these days, not that I'm aware of those ever happening before :)

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  3. I didn't know it ever started by msuzio · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, what they're saying is, they're giving up on the hype, because apparently none of us are falling for it?

    OK, bring on the next over-hyped technology. I'll just keep developing Web apps the same way I always have :-). Good old hand-rolled MVC style models
    still seem pretty solid to me :-).

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  4. Read between the lines... by Kiaser+Zohsay · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is he predicting the end of web services, or the end of useless conferences?

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  5. I agree, web services is over by tzanger · · Score: 4, Informative

    XWT is the way to go these days. OS-agnostic, clear and simple separation of UI and business logic and totally, wholly extensible. I love this software.

    1. Re:I agree, web services is over by broody · · Score: 2, Informative

      ...and slow as molasses.

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    2. Re:I agree, web services is over by tzanger · · Score: 2

      [xwt] ?and slow as molasses.

      I don't know what systems you're running it on but it's as fast as any win32 or linux app I run...

  6. My Favorite Quote by Euphonious+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    My favorite bit is
    Box also said UDDI is the technology of the future, but that may change in 2003.
    Toadying has always paid well.
  7. Spin out of proportion by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2

    Forgive me, but isn't calling Web Services an "era" rather overstating their importance? Certain parties, not only MS, have been pushing this idea for a few years now, but it's never really caught on, and for a very good reason: much of the development world has no use for them, gains no benefit from them, and so couldn't care less about them.

    One might reasonably argue that the use of COM-related technologies was an "era" in the Microsoft development world, since they gained reasonably widespread usage in the industry and lasted a while. And yet now, as MS pushes their latest and greatest, we have former COM proponents such as Don Box coming out and saying (not just in this article, but all over the place) that COM was never really any good. I think that makes it quite clear how important, or otherwise, "keynote" speeches by Microsoft spin doctors -- and the subjects they discuss -- really are.

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    1. Re:Spin out of proportion by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2
      In the new version of Petzold, ("Petzold .NET) he comes right out & says MFC was no good.

      Too bad I can't use my mod points on a thread I'm posting on; that was worth a (+1, Funny) any day. :-)

      But seriously... I'd like to know exactly what Petzold says. After all, he was the API man, not really an MFC advocate, a la Kruglinski et al. And while MFC is a prime example of how not to do good OO, it has proven to be a good, pragmatic solution for many developers, as witnessed by the number of projects that have shipped based on it. I'm always a bit hesitant to criticise on theoretical grounds a tool that has proven to be useful in practice.

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