[Mono-devel-list] .NET Web services in Perl?

[Vsevolod (Simon) Ilyushchenko]

Rafael,

Thanks for the quick answer. Strangely enough, there is a fourth 
interpretation. I don't want use .NET on the server side at all. I do, 
however, want to use .NET on the client (MS discontinues SOAP support 
soon). Hence, I'd like to catch .NET requests on the server in a 
language of my choice and respond without using .NET at all.

Web Services are a protocol, right? Are they just an RPC mechanism 
similar to SOAP or are they a more involved thing that requires a very 
specific smart server program that utilizes specific .NET classes?

Thanks,
Simon

Rafael Teixeira wrote:
> Well, you are mixing things.
> 
> First, Perl isn't a Mono/.NET language, so if you want to write web
> services in Mono, it is better to use the many languages already
> available in Mono (C#, Nemerle, Boo, IronPython, ...). Just to be
> completely fair, ActiveState had an effort to mix Perl and .NET, but
> it was a mixed environment (Perl Interpreter alongside the CLR
> (virtual machine)) with some bridging, so the results weren't as good
> as using some of the above mentioned languages.
> 
> Second, if you just want to be able call Mono classes from Perl,
> that's is feasible using the embedding APIs but in your case not very
> worthy, because Mono/ASP.NET Web Services Infrastructure does a lot
> for you and then calls your code and then does a lot of other things,
> not the reverse. So unless you wan't to rewrite large portions of that
> infrastructure in Perl.
> 
> Finally, you may be tempted to write a Perl Interpreter in C#/Mono, or
> call the Perl executable by shelling out to it, so that you'd be able
> to execute Perl Scripts inside Web Services hosted by Mono, but the
> glue logic you'll need to write to make it simple to use is enormous
> or else custom glue logic would be needed to be written for every web
> service.
-- 

Simon (Vsevolod ILyushchenko)   simonf at cshl.edu
				http://www.simonf.com

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