[MUD-Dev] SOAP (was: A new MUD-standard)

[Bruce]

Bruce wrote:
> Kevin Littlejohn wrote:
>>   http://www.bofh.net.au/mud/doc/zwiki/MoebiusXML
 
>> I offer this up in full humility, knowing it will be torn to shreds
>> ;) However, we've implemented this in Moebius as a first-step after
>> wandering through some of these discussions, basically because a)
>> it's easy to handle for any client builder, b) it gives us a base
>> from which to start working on the bigger question of what do you
>> want client and server to be able to do, without worrying about how
>> do you want to define the protocol over which it'll be done.
 
> Why this over BXXP rather than XML-RPC or SOAP over BXXP?
 
> (Apart from the lack of a hash/associative array datatype in either.)

As an update here, I've since learned that XML-RPC and SOAP -do-
support hash/associative array/dictionary datatypes.  They just call
it a 'struct'. :)

And for those who worry about the complexity of SOAP in its entirety,
there's current work being done by Dave Winer and others to create a
simplified subset, as defined by the 'Busy Developer's Guide to SOAP
1.1'.  More info on that can be found in the current entries at
http://www.scripting.com/ as well as:

  http://www.xmlrpc.com/aBusyDevelopersGuideToSoap11

How does all this relate to muds?  There are a lot of movements afoot
today to open up the APIs of various pieces of software by providing a
way to invoke them via XML-RPC or SOAP.  This is a large part of what
Microsoft's .NET is about (and is probably more important in many ways
than C#, the CLR, etc.).  With this type of thing, you could ideally
offer alternative ways to access services from the mud.  How do things
start to change when you can fairly easily offer access to in-game or
out-of-character things from the convenience of a small desktop
application?  Or by using that to build a bridge to offering wireless
or browser-based services? (Without having to continually modify the
mud server as you want to offer new interfaces to services, since the
interfaces communicate via xml-rpc or soap.)  No really new thoughts
here, but this isn't a topic that has been widely explored on the list
either.  Thoughts, comments?

  - Bruce

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