Imagine extending the type of reflection built into Java objects to whole applications. Just as Java objects can be interrogated to determine fields, methods, interfaces, inheritance, so to can applications be developed that provide similar information. All that is required is a common means of expressing such information.
Obviously XML would be a prime candidate as a language to express reflective application metadata. WSDL does enable something like reflection but it is targeted at web services.
Before universally reflective applications can talk there must exist a universal means of communicating between applications no matter what technologies are use to implement those apps. CORBA attempts to bridge application to application communication but has had many issues. JEE attempts to make this same bridge by using containers. HTTP enables web servers to communicate with each other and with browsers. Everyone has agreed to follow the HTTP standard. What is needed is something equivalent to HTTP for applications in general, not just web servers, to communicate.
Will that standard simply be implemented on top of tcp/ip stack? Could everyone agree on a standard XML schema, on the exchange protocol, common ports, etc.
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