Chapter 7. Beyond the Flame Wars

The debate within the web services community is often heated and at times intemperate as the advocates of SOAP-based and REST-style services tout the merits of one approach and rail against the demerits of the other. Whatever the dramatic appeal of a SOAP versus REST conflict, the two approaches can coexist peacefully and productively. There is no hard choice here—no either one or the other but not both. Each approach has its appeal, and either is better than legacy approaches to distributed software systems. A quick look at the history of distributed systems is one way to gain perspective on the matter.