Don Demsak (aka DonXML) - Database Geek of the Week
I first met Don Demsak at one of the many User Group meetings that he is involved with (or perhaps it was a Geek Dinner - my memory for those sort of details is quite bad). Don is a fixture at such meetings, as well as Code Camps up and down the East Coast. Don is also an XML Insider and Microsoft MVP in XML.
Don is the Database Geek of the Week this week!
I have not really internalized XML, though I do use XML in many of my applications (Web Services for sure, but also as a way to persist information the application requires). Here is one question and answer about learning XML from my interview:
Doug: XML and the associated technologies are deceptively simple. One of the benefits of XML is that anyone can look at the XML file and understand what’s in there. To use XML as a developer, however, you need to learn a little more. Can you think of a good way for a developer new to XML to become comfortable with it?
Don: The most important thing to remember when working with XML is that it is not based on procedural programming techniques, which is part of the reason it is so simple and intuitive. So I tell people to forget most of the programming they learned and start with a fresh outlook. I say most of the programming because SQL is very similar to XML in that it is a declarative language. Another important thing to remember is that XML is just data, just like any other piece of data you will find in a database. XML is not a version of an object, and treating it as such will only cause you problems. Think of XML as a message and it will make things easier.