Thanks! So, the XML/SOAP/WS stack tried to simplify/abstract too much or wrongly, when problems leak through, it is too impermeable to let you solve them... Th

Thanks! So, the XML/SOAP/WS stack tried to simplify/abstract too much or wrongly, when problems leak through, it is too impermeable to let you solve them... The "nuisance" of JSON+HTTP is a backward step in a way, but it lets you solve those problems. Sounds like an ideal solution would be an abstraction with less nuisance, that solves the network issues that it can and gives you access for the others - which may or may not be possible; it's an ideal. (1) By "network issues" do you mean along the lines of Peter Deutsch's "8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing"? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Comput... (2) Regarding "assumptions" and "less brittle", do you mean issues of reading the format correctly, in the face of evolution of the internal structure and/or wire format?