[OT] Web Services Dead? Don't Tell Amazon

[Jan Schenkel]

--- Dan Shafer <revdan at danshafer.com> wrote:
> During our recent thread on thin-client vs. desktop
> apps, several  
> people suggested that Web Services were passe, outre
> and otherwise  
> obsolete and deadsville.
> 
> Someone forgot to tell amazon.com. They announced
> not one, not two,  
> but three totally new Web services just this
> morning.
> 

Don't look at me: I would never suggest that web
services are dead -- on the contrary, they provide a
structured and relatively easy-to-use way to write
client-server/online applications.

In fact, a lot of applications which switched over to
the WS paradigm ages ago, are reaping the benefits of
this decision now, as they find it easier to integrate
their applications with Message Queues and Enterprise
Service Bus infrastructures.

Thanks to Web Services, these application designers
can mix and match the best technologies to achieve the
quickest results: Rev and .NET clients, ASP/JSP/PHP
servers with MySQL/PostgreSQL/... back-ends, where
good use of XML and SQL allow you to switch out any of
the assembled parts when the need arises.

An excellent series on this approach can be read on
O'Reilly's MacDevCenter website: [Applying "Digital
Hub" concepts to Enterprise Software Design / by Adam
Behringer]
- Part 1:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/05/04/enterprise.html>
- Part 2:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/05/21/enterprise_2.html>
- Part 3:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/06/18/enterprise_3.html>
- Part 4:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/07/30/enterprise_4.html>
- Part 5:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/09/17/enterprise_5.html>
- Part 6:
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/02/25/enterprise_6.html>

Yes, it is a lot of reading, and it doesn't involve
Rev, but you can learn for the basic concept: how this
approach allows us to build powerful, flexible
applications.

However, I still don't think that letting the server
do all the work while your computer is sitting there
as a glorified VT100 terminal, is the optimal design
of a distributed application. Let the server do what
it's best at: serve shared data ; and the client do
what it's best at: edit private data and interact with
the server to create, read, update and delete shared
data.

I'd much rather not do that in a browser, but that's
just me...

Jan Schenkel.

Quartam - Tools for Revolution
<http://www.quartam.com>

=====
"As we grow older, we grow both wiser and more foolish at the same time."  (La Rochefoucauld)


	
		
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