Eric Newcomer on the RPC/doc-literal cultural divide

eric newcomer: xml's effect on distributed computing clip length: 45 seconds source: sys-con

Eric Newcomer's blog alerted me to his appearance on an interview panel at Sys-Con TV. In the video clip I've inserted here he notes that while all prior incarnations of distributed computing share a common RPC (remote procedure call) lineage, XML-oriented web services come from the very different tradition of text markup:

The traditional distributed computing guys, like myself, have difficulty adjusting to the difference that XML makes.

It would be great to hear more from Eric about the nature of those difficulties. For me, it's the inverse problem. I've always worked in the realm of text markup, so learning about distributed computing was the adjustment I've had to make. It would be fascinating to convene a panel with representatives of both cultures to discuss the adaptations we're making as the two styles -- which under the web services rubric we call RPC and doc/literal -- converge.

Update: Tim Ewald offers a useful clarification:

I'd be careful with the term doc/literal. That's really a WSDL detail meaning simply that the message payload is accurately described by the referenced XSD (as opposed to encoded, where that is not the case). Doc/literal is orthogonal to the issue of whether the architecture or programming model is focused on RPC, async messaging or document transfer.

Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/12/08.html#a1351