On Tue, 11 Apr 2000 13:39:00 -0700, Jonathan K. Weedon
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Why application server interoperability
> should be based on smoke signals
>
><vendor>
<snip>
Either I am really bad at explaining things, or you really haven't
listened at all. You took one of the minor points of the anti-protocol
side, enlarged it as much as possible, and almost provided an argument
for your point of view. I'm not very convinced just yet, sorry. And if
this was the best argument you could come up with, I don't quite see why
we're still discussing this.
Anyway, I'll try to play your game and use metaphors. Maybe that will be
easier to understand.
Once upon a time there was an indian tribe called the Hopis. They lived
in groups that were far apart on the great plains of America. To
communicate they found that the most effective method was to use smoke
signals. This worked very well since the land was dry and fires were
easy to set up, and the absense of high mountain ranges and clear skies
made it even more effective. All is well.
In another country, far away, there are Tibetan monks who live in the
rocky neighbourhood of the Himalayas. They too needed a way to
communicate between the monasteries. However, unlike the Hopis they
found that smoke signals didn't quite work. The high mountains and
strong winds made the smoke dissipate too much to make it work well.
Making a fire was also tough since the landscape was covered with snow,
and burnable material scarce. Hence, they used fast runners to send
messages. Comparatively slow, but reliable.
In yet another country, living in the vast Amazon rain forests of South
America, there was a tribe who don't really have a name (AFAIK it's not
pronouncable using western syllables). Nevertheless, they too needed to
communicate over distances somehow. But smoke signals wasn't reliable
(have you ever tried to light a fire in a rain forest? "Difficult" is an
understatement), so they mimicked the animals and used sounds. Sounds on
particular frequencies and created using fairly large instruments can
travel far in a forest, and since it was hard for an untrained ear to
distinguish it from animal sounds they were easy to conceal from
unwanted listeners.
All three tribes communicated like crazy within their respective groups,
until one day they each learned of each others existence. "Hey, cool,
more dudes to chat with!" they thought. So, the Hopis started signaling
using smoke, thinking that "hey, anyone can do smoke signals, right?".
Unfortunately, neither the monks nor the Amazon fellows ever got the
message, and if they did they wouldn't have been able to decipher the
signals. Tragedy. So many new friends, and no way to talk.
And so it was for a long time, until one day one of the Tibetan monks,
after a particularly inspiring meditation session, had a vision:
"I know, let's send one of our guys to the Hopis. We can use sign
language, or he can learn the Hopi language, and if they have something
interesting to say he can come back and tell us!". And thus the concept
of an "embassy" was born.
The Amazon dudes learned of this trick and also sent an ambassador of
their tribe to the Hopis. After some tweaking the monk, Hopis, and
amazon dude managed to understand each other, and the monk could run
back with some important information, whereas the Amazon used his horn
to tell his friends (and considering the distance he had to blow REALLY
hard! But it worked).
And from that day they communicated without a glitch. Happy happy.
And noone ever considered using smoke signals only. Because history had
shown them that this didn't work too well all over the world.
The End
/Rickard
Metaphor reference:
"tribe"="vendor"
"Himalaya"="firewall"
"horn"="cell phone"
"embassy"="API-based proxy"
"smoke signal"="IIOP"
"running monk"="RMI/SOAP"
"conceal from unwanted listeners"="super-mega-encryption++"
--
Rickard �berg
@home: +46 13 177937
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.telkel.com
http://www.ejboss.org
http://www.dreambean.com
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