Martijn Klingens wrote:
> 
> > BTW, having read all the docs and written some implementation, I've
> > decided that SOAP is a great protocol :)
> 
> Can it (technically) replace e.g. DCOP in KDE 3? Not that I'm saying I want
> this, just curious. I guess this is getting off-topic here, so a private
> reply might be in order...

As the others allready pointed out, that wouldn't be a good idea
because of performance problems. I just did a presentation about
SOAP at the university and according to my research SOAP (and
other XML-based protocols) is about 10 times slower than traditional
binary RPC/RMI protocols and about 100 times slower than a raw
socket connection. This paper compares SOAP with Java RMI and has
a lot of detailed data: http://www.extreme.indiana.edu/soap/sc00/paper/index.html

This is the reason why Microsoft .NET uses a binary protocol for
LANs and SOAP only for the internet.

To give you an idea of the performance you can expect on a PC:
With Apache SOAP as server and a custom C++ client using QXML
and kio_http I was able to do about 10-15 calls/sec on a 
1Ghz Athlon PC.

The main purposes of SOAP are currently 
* Interoperability, combining different RPC/RMI systems (e.g. IONA
  sells a Corba Orb which can use both IIOP and SOAP as transport
  protocol)
* Client/Server applications for the internet, because with HTTP
  or SMTP its possible to access SOAP services through firewalls
  and proxies

I implemented a small example application for my presentation that
simulates a internet auction side with Apache SOAP (Java) on the 
server side and a GUI client implemented with C++, QXml, kio_http.
I have to agree with Rik that it is fun to use SOAP, because its
very easy to learn and to employ. Especially implementing a SOAP service
with Apache SOAP is very easy.

Greetings
Christian
-- 
>><< Christian Gebauer >><< gebauer@bigfoot.com >><< ICQ 14916141 >><<