[selcuka]

That was exactly my sentiments back in 2000s. I had to use SOAP a few times, then switched to a semi-proprietary binary protocol called Hessian [1] (and its XML based sister, Burlap [2]) and it saved my day.

[1] http://hessian.caucho.com/

[2] http://hessian.caucho.com/doc/burlap.xtp