Sams Teach Yourself Web Services in 24 Hours

Chapter . Introduction

Whenever a new technology comes along, the whole technical community reaches to grasp the details as well as the implications. If this technology represents a “sea change” in the way that computers are programmed, the need to comprehend becomes a matter of technical survival.

Web services represents a sea change. There have been other drastic changes in the computing environment in the past few decades. Here are a few of them:

• Stored programs replaced punch cards and paper tape.

• Online systems largely replaced batch systems.

• Graphical user interfaces replaced green screens.

• Networked computers replaced standalone computing.

• Internet-based systems replaced LAN-based systems.

In a year or two we will add the following:

• Web services–based ...