ZSI, SOAP and .NET web services - problem

[Laszlo Nagy]

> I tried to use different library - SOAPpy, but I couldn't. It requires
> fpconst library which cannot be installed because its server does not
> respond at all. What a shit...
>   
I concur! When I tried to use ZSI the first time, it turned out it has 
no support for attachments. Next time I it turned out that it requires 
PyXML, which has no support and cannot be installed for Window + Python 
2.5. Then I needed to use WSSE login, and then I wanted to authenticate 
with x509. Too many problems. SOAP support for Python is bad indeed.

> Why nobody wants to add SOAP to standard Python library? XML-RPC was added
> and it works without any problems

Unfortunately, cursing won't help. It would be the best to join the ZSI 
group - it is where we can help. However, it is an interesting question. 
Ruby has smaller community, how could they implement a standard SOAP lib?

My personal opinion is that SOAP is a piece of shit itself. It is 
hampered from the beginning. If you are interested why, read this:

http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/ 


XML-RPC is a fantastic, often undervalued protocol. You can create a 
new, secure XML-RPC server in Python within 5 minutes. You can write a 
client for it within one minue. It is REALLY simple. I'm using it 
continuously.

In contrast, SOAP is overcomplicated and anything but simple. No one 
should create new web services using SOAP. We have enough problems with 
the existing ones. :-(

Despite SOAP is even not a finished standard, big software companies are 
pushing the technology, can someone explain why? Is it because it only 
works correctly with Java and .NET? I guess the reasons are quite 
financial. :-(

  Laszlo