Replies

Supporting Document-Style Web Services before the W3C, which Microsoft has consistently done, will enhance the software development industry more than the operating system suppliers.

"What qualifications support such a broad claim like that?"

That's an easy one to answer. Many software development shops -- would you be surprised to know that I work for one myself? -- have to focus on approaching customers who use a particular development platform. IBM AS/400 shops usually specialize in RPG and Java Programming with WebSphere, Solaris shops do almost nothing but Java, and Windows shops specialize in Microsoft .NET, VB, C++, and more. If Document-Style Web Services become the standard for web service development, by which I mean "if they are supported across development platforms," then XML software applications will be able to ship out not only data but also the information which describes the data (XML Schemas). When that happens software development shops will no longer be restricted to marketing themselves as experts in one particular development platform but will instead be able to approach potential customers or clients on an open basis, regardless of which development platform they may have. And the demand for such software will clearly increase when there is no longer a premium expense to be added for access to any individual machine beyond the usual rights of user access permissions. That can only increase the development of internet software applications in general, which will be a big boost to the software development industry.