Q: Steve, Microsoft has a lot of new technology, what’s special about WCF?
A: Everyone that I talk to wants their software to works well with other systems. Simply put, WCF is the tooling in Windows that makes that happen. It works with the Internet protocols that small business and consumer applications rely on, but it also meets the communication needs of complex enterprises. So WCF provides a feature that virtually everyone wants. As a software developer, you need to know that and be prepared to deliver.
Q: But if my application is just a web site, why would I need WCF?
A: It depends on what your site does. Say it’s a product catalog. You may want to allow customers to download portions of the catalog or subscribe to updates. So, using just a few lines of code, you can publish an “RSS feed”, which is the technology behind blogs, so that customers can easily get to your catalog from whatever device they choose. We have a chapter in the book called “Programmable Web” that covers this in detail.
