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 NEWSUserLand's Winer: All roads lead to Web services By Mark Jones and Martin LaMonica January 17, 2002 3:11 pm PT SAN FRANCISCO -- Web services is not only the culmination of decades worth of software development, for the technically savvy, it's like welcoming back an old friend.
"It's a continuum, it's been leading to Web services for a long time," he said of software development. "If you look at the history of software industry, it's been leading to Web services." Winer is known as the man who first developed XML RPC (remote procedure call) in partnership with Microsoft in 1998, the result of which became the Web services standard SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) Version 1.1. For Winer, a seminal moment in understanding the concept of linking software components dynamically with scripting languages came in 1983. Bill Gates espoused the principle of putting APIs on application components in favor of monolithic applications that combine multiple functions, Winer explained. Another important development in the road to Web services was the evolution of the user interface. Couple that with the "upheaval" brought on by Web browsers, HTTP servers, and TCP/IP, Winer said we now have the integration of the Web browser and desktop. In many respects, the adoption of SOAP and XML RCP is "like homecoming. It's like Unix and the desktop get together again," Winer said. Winer also attributed the attention to Web services to their simplicity. Adopting the term "bootstrapping" as coined by software industry guru Doug Engelbart, Winer said history has shown technology has always developed from simple beginnings. "It has got to start simple or it has no chance," he said. "If you don't understand [a new technology] first off, and it makes your mind go numb, you're safe to ignore it, [because] it will never work," he said. To make his point about simplicity, Winer demonstrated his weblogs.com Web site, which is built around XML and SOAP. The site, which allows users to post their opinions to a community of users, keeps network traffic to a minimum and leverages the computing of end-users. "I see the Web as a writing environment," he said. Winer's company, Burlingame, Calif.-based UserLand, on Friday shipped Radio UserLand, a Weblog tool. In addition, the Internet also has an increasingly important role handling this distribution on connection between applications, he said. But Winer does see some roadblocks to future Web services growth, notably the development of proprietary XML schema. "This is the fly in the ointment in the XML industry," Winer mused. He also questioned the impact the large proprietary-biased vendors will have on the development of open Web services. Pointing at IBM and Microsoft, Winer said WSDL (Web Services Description Language) was invented in such a way that it will only work in Java and .Net environments. "It can't work in a dynamic environment; it's a static interface," he said. Answering a question posted on his Weblog about how to avoid vendor lock-in, Winer said the answer is simple: "Stop buying their products." "There is no doubt the big vendors do not want you to have choice," Winer added. And judging by the fact no one in the audience raised a hand to disagree when asked, it will be a popular train of thought for years to come. Mark Jones is West Coast news editor at InfoWorld. Martin LaMonica is an InfoWorld executive editor. SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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