BEEP, BEEP!

Kewl, alphaWorks has recently posted a BEEP implementation: BeepLite Networking Layer. Now, all we need is a killer app for BEEP (IETF RFC3080) to get it more widely adopted and deployed.

The BEEP protocol offers much richer message exchange patterns than does HTTP, enabling the likes of publish/subscribe, one request/N responses, etc. without having to resort to hacks. The alphaWorks implementation includes the SOAP/BEEP binding (IETF RFC3288) which deserves some closer inspection. Personally, I think that all of this needs a more effective programming model to simplify things a bit for the average developer, but it is a start in the right direction.