Re: how does one talk to a web service? What makes something a web service?

I thought I knew what a web service was but now I am not so sure. I am
still learning java and come from a C++ background. The way people on
my project talk about web services reminds me of the C++ CORBA
servants I used to write. In which case we would use WSDL instead of
OMG IDL. But I have seen the code of some of the sruff they say is a
web service and it does not seem like a service to me. For a start,
there is no WSDL. There is a spring MVC controller responding to a URL
pattern. People can go to the URL and do admin type things from the
web page. That doesnt seem like a web service to me.
I have been asked to work on a process that has to talk to such a
'service'. How would be this be done from java please? Since AFAICS it
is just a web page I would have to talk HTML, post a request and get a
response etc. That doesn't seem the right way to use a service to me.
It seems far too low level. The equivalent in my old world would be
for someone to say that I would be talking to a CORBA service and then
I find I am expected to code it using raw sockets and working directly
with the low level CORBA data transmission protocol.