October 2004 - Posts
Bob recently posted some interesting thoughts about where XQuery on the client is going with the .NET framework.He makes the comparision between XQuery and WSE where talks about using the "add-on model" for XQuery. I think that's a fine idea and hopefully it will go someplace. Bob's idea of getting the community involved in the implementation is particuarily appealing too.
This week at Win-Dev folks "across the hall" were lecturing in earnest about the WSE 2.0 offering. The WSE (web service extension) offerings are supported add-ons, outside of the "core" .NET APIs, and mostly implementations of various WS-* specs-in-progress. They're not guarenteed to be compatible with future offerings or with Indigo, the next generation WS-*++ implementation. In fact, some of the specs that were supported in WSE 1.0 have already completely vanished from the WS-* landscape. There's *way* more churn in this space.
Got me thinking...why not a similar model for XQuery? That is, a supported add-on implementation of the current specification with namespaces that begin with Microsoft.* rather than System.Xml.*. Guarenteed to change, at least subtly, but existing to get folks used to using it. The alternatives, that is, using Saxon.NET or working on a community implementation of XSLT 2.0/XQuery 1.0/XPath 2.0 are already happening. How about it...Microsoft.Xml.Query/Microsoft.Xml.Mapping anyone?
At the same time, due dilligence needs to observed. While its unlikely that the basics of XQuery will change between now and REC status, you might want to keep your use it limited to a middle tier parts that are easier to update rather than having 100 or 1000 time more client machines if something goes awry.
Just a heads-up: if you create a standard login for SQL Server 2005 databases running on computers where local and global password policies apply, you might be in for a surprise...
More details in my SQLJunkies blog over here.
 | I've not really blogged much about Code Camp II since getting back from Boston. Mostly my own fault. But let me tell you, Thom and Joe put together one great show and if you, can I highly recommend going to the next iteration of it scheduled for Q1 2005. The highlight for me was getting to talk about SQL Server 2005 with such an in-tune group. Great questions and participation made these some of the most enjoyable presentations I've done. Getting to meet and hang out with DonXML, ScottWater and Adam Machanic ruled. It was so great to finally meet Robert Hurlbut, Sam Gentile and whole host of others. Thom should be marshalling up my slides and so on up the Code Camp website (http://msdncodecamp.com/ over the next few days. However, if you can't wait, you're welcome to download them from tegels.org or just read the questions and answers from the SSX session at http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/ktegels/articles/4831.aspx |
The first Heartland Developers Conference, scheduled for December 3, 2004, is down to just a hand full of attendence slots left. As of this morning, we had a mere slots dozen openings out of the 140 we have room for. If you've been putting of registering for the 1-day, 2-track,16-session, $18 fee gathering you'd better not wait any longer! Sign up today that http://heartlanddc.com/
Sessions currently scheduled (subject to change)
- Rob Vanderhaar & Carlos Marto on Migrating VB6 to .NET
- Jeff Brand & Jacquelyn Schmidt on WinForms 2.0
- Robert Boedigheimer on Practical ASP.Net Techniques
- Scott Colestock on BizTalk
- Sam Gentile on Introduction to Whidbey C# Generics
- Robert Hurlbut on SQL Server 2005 Service Broker
- Eric Johnson on Distributed Architecture in .NET
- Adam Kinney on XAML
- Rocky Lhotka as Opening Keynote : SOA: Procedural Programming Redux or Emergent Technology?
- JC Novoa on Developing Reports using Reporting Services (SQL 2000/2005)
- Phil Wolfe on ASP.NET 2.0 Portal Framework
I'll be there, but since I'm one of the event administrators, I won't be speaking. Look forward to see you there or at the pre-conference party!
Ye-Haw! Irwin Dolobosky just announced that Service Pack 3 version of SqlXml 3.0 is up and ready for use from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=51D4A154-8E23-47D2-A033-764259CFB53B&displaylang=en. We can finally get this going on Windows 2003 Server!
If you're not familiar with SQL XML, that's a shame! Learn more about it from the SqlXml from:
John Durant has an interesting post talking about RTF or WordML for Office solutions?
John's main point is that its easier to generate WordML on the server than it is RTF. As a Document-centeric kind of guy, my first reaction was "its really a function of the complexity of document involved."
Just to be safe, I decided to take a look at an exmple in our "real world." For example, I'm changed with maintaining an ASP.NET application that generates Safety Guides on the server. We use RTF largely because its what was available to us at the time. So this morning I decide to look into what it would take to rewrite that to use WordML instead. I'd love to say that I concluded that redoing that to output WordML instead of RTF would be hard enough that the best solution going forward is to would be to stick with RTF.
I can't. The WordML format for these documents seems both cleaner to generate programatically and to serve up efficiently.
What is going to be hard (maybe) is changing how we do it. Instead of just building up a big string of data and literally writing both the data and the markup, maybe its time to invest in writing my our own version of a streaming writter that would construct valid WordML on the fily. I'm sure that sounds easier that it is, but I can see all kinds of places where we would use it. In short, what I need is WordMLTextWritter that's a decendent of XmlTextWriter. Now if somebody has already written that, my life really would be simple!
John's does make assertion that doesn't quite jive with me though: That is XML is a better choice because it has more mind share than RTF. I'm not sure that I completely agree. While that's true the closer you get to the cutting edge, there's lots of cases where RTF is still the defacto standard because "its what we've always done. Its not broken."
If that were really true, we'd still be riding horses. 
Hello, I'm Kent Tegels -- whom you may know from my blog over at SQLJunkies where I keep my main blog "Enjoy Every Sandwich." That's from quote from Warren Zevon not long before he passed way. This blog's title is taken from a Warren Zevon song that appeared on one his late 1990s albums.
I'll be using this blog to talk about the things I do and see with ASP.NET, the .NET community and our events, examples (where suitable) IIS FTP and W3SVC, some things SQL Server -- especially using the CLR and XML -- as they relate to ASP.NET applications. I'm definetly a proponent of XML, so you'll see stuff about that here too. Then, finally, there will be rants, jokes and other off-topic stuff in the channel "straight to /dev/null."
I suppose that last one gives away that I'm not totally a Windows Geek. Yes, I have a dark past working with Perl, Apache and MySQL. These days, though, my world revolves around IIS, FPSE, VB.NET, ASP.NET and SQL Server. I work for HDR, Inc., one of America's leading Architecture, Engineering and Consulting companies. We design things like hospitals, prisions and highways. I'm in the corporate IS group where I write ASP.NET applications, troubleshoot IIS problems and help others do the same. At the first of October, 2004, I was awarded MVP status for Windows System Server -- SQL Server. My main areas of interest are CLR integration and the use of XML technologies. I'm very active in the SQL Express newsgroup as well. Off the clock, I drink beer. Oh sure, I do more than drink beer, but you know, that usually involves drinking beer too, so its just easier to admit its mostly about drinking beer and get on with it.
And now you why they call Mister Bad Example...
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