Microsoft delivers Web Services Toolkit
internetwk | at | by Mike
Microsoft this week made available an add-on to its Visual Studio development platform that makes it easier for developers to build applications that support the Web services specifications it is forwarding. Yet the specs are strongly backed by Microsoft, and thus inclusion of them in the popular Visual Studio not only puts them into wide use, it sets up a scenario that could push rivals -- such as Sun Microsystems -- to back the specs or push its developers in another direction. That begins to move the battle over Web services specs out of the standards bodies and into the marketplace.