[mwcampbell]

Ah, OK. I don't think suds existed when I first tried to access a SOAP API from Python in 2004. If it did exist, it was certainly obscure.

Perhaps my own experience trying to use SOAP can shed some light on why REST prevailed. In 2004, I tried to use the PayPal mass payment API from a Python application (in the now-defunct Quixote web framework). As I recall, I found one Python SOAP client library, but for some reason, I couldn't use it to access the PayPal API. It was all just so complicated. In desperation, I ended up writing a small service (micro-service?) to access the PayPal API using the official PayPal Java SDK. That service used Jython, because I just couldn't stand Java's verbosity. The main application communicated with the service using XML-RPC.

Compared to SOAP, when I discovered REST, it seemed refreshingly simple, built for the Web rather than awkwardly abusing HTTP as a transport for an over-complicated RPC protocol.