Programming WCF Services

Preface

In August 2001 I first learned the details of an effort in Microsoft to rewrite COM+ using managed code. Nothing much happened after that. Then, in July 2002, during a C# 2.0 Strategic Design Review, the remoting program manager outlined in broad strokes plans to rework remoting into something that developers should actually use. At the same time, Microsoft was also working on incorporating the new security specs for web services into the ASMX stack and actively working with others on drafting a score of additional web services specs.

In July 2003 I was given access to a new transactional infrastructure that improved on the deficiencies in transactional .NET programming. As of yet, there was no cohesive programming model that unified these distinct technologies. Towards the end of 2003 I was privileged to be invited to join a small team of outside industry experts and participate in the strategic design review of a new development platform code- named Indigo. Some of the smartest and nicest people I know were part of that team. Over the next 2–3 years Indigo went through some three generations of programming models. The current declarative, endpoint-driven object model debuted in early 2005, was stabilized by August of that year, and was named the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

It is difficult to get a consistent answer from different people on what WCF is. To the web service developer, it is the ultimate interoperability solution, an implementation of a long list ...