The XML Grinch
Published May 24, 2007 by John
The techno debates about one technology versus another are often hard to follow unless you’re pretty well versed in the specific technologies, and with the number of acronyms and tools expanding daily, most of the debates end up in relative obscurity. If and when you do need to understand them, the best hope you have is to find someone who can distill it for your. And among those who distill, those who can tell a story about it are the most fun.
When I had to understand what this JSON thing was in order to make a small change in a system at work, I cam across a great summary of its short history on The B-List. Not only does he put JSON in context, he also manages to include a perfect paraphrasing of one side of the debate by channeling Dr. Seuss.
So the XML-the-protocol-stack people are more than a little bit scared and defensive right now because of the REST folks. And now here are these kids with their startup companies and their weblogs who are getting data exchange and even things that kind of look like APIs out of… JavaScript arrays? The XML guys are sitting up on the mountaintop like the Grinch, with his pile of stolen presents, wondering how Christmas still managed to happen: it came without specs! It came without hype! It came without angle brackets, envelopes or types!
Now I’d like to see someone describe an ESB the way Horton would see it.
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John,
I stumbled across your blog, and Glean, while looking at various Style Sheets for Cobertura.
I recently did a little review of some of the ideas behind ESBs, when considering the issues with (possibly) replacing a very key, but very ancient (20 year old) socket app, written in assembly. What technology to use for the next 20?
I think I somewhat understand the benefits of an ESB: isn’t that like my USB device on my computer? Or Microsoft’s printer driver? A little perusing the internet blogs, starting from Vinoski’s post, helped “distill” the ideas about ESBs into something I could understand even easier: Smart Plumbing. Not sure if Turner coined that term himself, but I think it really fits.
After all, it seems we are moving away from centralized system, since the days of Multics. For other examples, note the success of peer to peer vs. Napster, or the decentralized repository scheme of BitKeeper vs. the centralized nature of CVS.
ESBs: Wrong approach to adopting SOA by Bobby Woolf (Think about SOA first, then use ESB if necessary, or a simpler approach)
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soa-esbarch/
Steve Vinoski: ESBs force canonical protocols (exactly the problem we have of extra unnecessary mappings)
“In practice, nobody ever needs to connect everything to everything else.”
http://blogs.iona.com/vinoski/archives/000071.html
ESBs - EAI all over again (instead of open standards, like WS-*, we are tied to a proprietary software- webMethods).
http://blogs.iona.com/vinoski/archives/000164.html
Integration at the edges:
http://www.ipbabble.com/2005/12/translation_does_not_mean_hub.html
This is the best one, that best, in my opinion, distilled the concept of an ESB:
The dark side to ESBs: “What value, therefore, is an ESB? To my mind, an ESB is smart-plumbing to which to attach dumb nodes.” Interesting just for the fact that it’s a Microsoft guy talking about vendor lock-in:
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2005/03/23/401146.aspx#403310
http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2005/04/28/413159.aspx
As an aside, one certainly must wonder whether companies might reign in their leading minds - note the hilarious quote at the start of Bobby Woolf’s article above:
“Since its publication, Bobby’s article has drawn a lot of interest, and we appreciate the discussion surrounding this article. Unfortunately, it gave some readers the impression that IBM® no longer values the ESB. Rest assured that nothing is further from the truth. See the sidebar below by Greg Flurry and Kyle Brown for a clarification of the issues involved.
”
Vinoski, while at Iona, seemed to be in a similarly odd position. “But Steve, if ESBs are EAI all over again, why should I get Iona’s offering?” His answer was not too convincing…