Joshua Allen wrote:
>
> > But data exposed using SOAP usually cannot retrieved using GET, and
> > therefore isn't easily accessible using XSLT's document() function.
>
> XSLT document() can't do POST either. Saying that "all things that do
> not use GET are inaccessible to GET", is not informative. I understood
> Paul's position, but I think it's a circular argument.
It isn't so much an argument as a fact. Google's HTTP-based service was
accessible to document() and XPointer and RDF assertions and the new one
isn't.
I really don't see the relevance of XSLT having access to POST. XSLT has
access to HTTP GET because HTTP was designed to be a web protocol and so
it defines a first class "get me the data" method. FTP wasn't designed
for the Web but also has such a feature. Even SMB (through file: and
smb:), IMAP (through imap:) and LDAP (through ldap:) could be used with
XSLT because they have all been adapted to the needs of the Web:
http://www.w3.org/Addressing/schemes
At least in theory if not in practice.
SOAP has no equivalent, so the Google guys necessarily lost that feature
when they moved from HTTP to SOAP.
Paul Prescod
