Saturday, April 27, 2002

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) I read this quote tonight, and I couldn't help but think of all the raging debates that have been going on about SOAP vs. REST.  One such debate I participated in with Paul Prescod on Joel's discussion forum here.  Paul gratiously congratulated me on "...having a sense of what SOAP is.".  I take this compliment with a grain of salt.  Not because it came from Paul.  I've read some of Paul's other articles, and he is very passionate about what he believes and that is a trait I truly admire in people.  The reason I take it with a grain of salt is because I don't believe I know anything about SOAP.  I'm not a plumber (a term that Peter Drayton has brought new meaning to here).  I've read the SOAP 1.1 spec a couple of times, implemented a basic SOAP framework, etc. but I don't believe that makes me enlightened.  I see the SOAP Data Model (and in the very near future the XSD Data Model) as the wire transport.  I compare it to DCOM, RMI, or CORBA.  I really don't care what the DCOM packet looks like.  The only thing I care about is that it gets mapped onto my nice little method in C++.  Don't get me wrong.  I like REST because it is very easy to explain and document.  It's just a URI. Of course there are problems with the SOAP Data Model as many (smarter) people have pointed out.  This makes interop tricky.  But again many (smarter) people are working together to make interop a reality.  I believe once we get smarter XML Parsers that understand XSD, that interop will be even easier.  But as far as I'm concerned, I just want the plumbing to call my C++ method.  I really don't care what it looks like on the wire. 10:56:27 PM

Quick note - I just got an e-mail asking why my tagline is "News from the forest".  It probably doesn't make much sense considering the color and background of this blog.  It comes from my personal site - www.pinetree-tech.com.  The name for that domain comes from the fact that I grew up on a Tree Farm.  Yep...a tree farmer turned programmer... 6:05:33 PM

I've spent some time today looking at all the different tools I use for web content.  By web content, I mean blogging, writing articles, and managing my personal site.  Right now I use Radio for this blog (obviously), and I use the CityDesk Content Management System for managing my personal site.  Radio works great for blogs, but doesn't look like it would work to well for doing complete management of my site.  This is fine.  Probably not what it was intended to be used for.  CityDesk works well for blogging and site management (excellent site management tool), but it bugs me about the type of HTML that it will generate and the fact that it is CSS ignorant (in version 1.0).  I'm trying to move my personal site over to XHTML and CSS.  To do this, I've switched to using Textpad and a custom tool to write the XHTML and CSS.  I still use CityDesk to manage the site for me, but I do not use it to write the content for the site anymore.  Of course, the main problem I run into is updating the page after I've added it to CityDesk.  I have to be careful not to switch to HTML view because it will screw up my XHTML.  I'm actually thinking about writing my own content managment system... Oh yeah...I'm going to release my XHTML version of my site sometime tomorrow... 5:53:57 PM

"Welcome to the wonderful word of blogging", I say to myself.  This is my initial blog entry.  Not too sexy, I know.  I've never been enamored to the idea of blogging.  But recently it has dawned on me that blogging has become the new way to communicate.  No one uses e-mail anymore (except maybe for what is private).  I've also noticed over the past few weeks that I've gotten wrapped up in following links between Sam Ruby, Peter Drayton, Sam Gentile and many many others.  So now I join the fray. I probably won't have near as many interesting things to say.  But at least I am saying them.  I'm not keeping them bottled up inside anymore. 3:26:35 PM

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