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January 31, 2005
Monday Evening Summary - Get you're picture taken with <XSLT:Blog/>, new Announcements feed
While there is still plenty of news to report on from the weekend I am putting these in the Weekend Summary post. Todays news is a little light so I thought I would add some fun to your day by taking and making available this picture:
Now, with a little Photoshop/GIMP magic you can show all of your friends that you are part of the "in" crowd here at <XSLT:Blog/> (which really isn't saying much given that on most days the "in" crowd consists of pretty much just me ;) And if you're really lucky and get to be my "New Best Friend of the Day" (again, not really saying all that much ;) you could get overly creative and showcase yourself holding a printout of your award and morph it into this pic for extra fun for the whole family.
In other news... I have added an "Announcements" feed to the blog available in Atom, RSS/RDF, and RSS 2.0 formats as usual. This section will be for things like product announcements etc... In fact I have already added the first entry showcasing an announcement from Sun Microsystems Tony Graham in regards to the release of xmlroff 0.3.1, an open-source XSL formatter.
For now, enjoy!
Posted by m.david at 06:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Weekend Summary - XQuery, XQuery, XQuery - My "New Best Friend of the Day" award and other fun stuff from this weekend
I've spent a majority of this weekend whackin' at some code for the site as well as preparing for phase 2 of the project, integration into Saxon.NET. There are still some features to finish on the side in regards to the client but I am quickly approaching the stage where I am in desperate need of some server-side functionality to enhance the client-side user experience. So I plan to wrap-up the remaining bits of the client today and then plan ahead to the server side integration for tomorrow. In the mean time, here is a summary of the news from this weekend. NOTE: I have created a raw news feed for the site available in Atom, RSS/RDF, and RSS 2.0 versions. This is an extremely raw feed and will eventually become somewhat automated. I don't recommend adding it to your reader unless you REALLY want everything that is XML/XSLT/XPath/XQuery coming in a rapid pace each and every day of the week.
Five IT Pilots Going 'Production Grade' in '05
Some interesting comments on the events to prepare for in 2005. XQuery is one of them. It might be a good idea to take into account the recent posting of Mike Champion in regards to this as this needs to be considered when thinking in terms of Microsoft and XQuery. This is Mike's follow-up to the official announcment from Soumitra Sengupta and Charlie Heinemann on MSDN. It seems that, for now, XQuery's future in production Microsoft products will reside within the SQL Server framework, a move that I completely and totally agree with as the need for an XQuery-like interface into SQL Server has been needed for a very long time. I am glad to see that this is something that Microsoft has deemed as important enough to ship pre-recommended spec. while at the same time recognizing that the development community was not completely in line with their decision to move forward with an XQuery/XSLT 1.0 solution for the future. Which reminds me... I have an award to give out.
Can I have the envelope please... In the category of "My New Best Friend for the Day" the award goes to... Oh my gosh we have a tie!
The *AWARDS* go to Mike Champion, Michael Rys, Soumitra Sengupta, Charlie Heinemann, and the Microsoft Corportation in general! Whoo Hooo!!!!
It's getting close to the end of the business day so I am going to publish this now and then keep adding to the news from the weekend and republish it again when I'm done...
Posted by m.david at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 29, 2005
Wrap-up report from yesterday
An event this morning ran longer than expected so I am just now getting to the report from yesterday. I actually only have a 15 minute window of opportunity to write this at the moment so I am going to get things started now, publish it, and then come back to it later this evening to finish things up.
Russell's presentation yesterday was fantastic! This was given to the development teams at Amazon as part of their Friday learning series. Jeff Bar blogged the whole thing here. Something I learned about Russ yesterday is that not only does he grok AOSD like few others do he ia also a fantastic speaker! I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before ;) but if you haven't already, BUY HIS BOOK!!!! If you need any further signs the "oh, and we have some copies of the book available to anyone who wants one" comment that Russ made at the end of his presentation begat what I will term a "stampede" of developers who, even though:
- Amazon had provided enough copies for each and every developer, his/her spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend, any children they might have, their pets (which they can bring to work if they would like), and any fleas their pets might happen to be suffering from.
- The books were maybe 7 feet at best from the front row of seats of which only went back about 20 rows before reaching the back of the room.When the comment was made I was knocked against the back of my chair from the wind that was generated from the wall of Amazon developers JUMPING AND RUNNING to the front of the room to get their copy -- I will add to this that Kurt Cagle (Kurt and I were given permission by Amazon to attend the presentation-- Thanks Amazon!:) and all of the connections he has inside of the book industry was one of those "rushing" the stage.
Uh oh, my 15 minutes are up... I will add a lot more to this later tonight.
'til then, enjoy!
Posted by m.david at 05:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 28, 2005
FANTASTIC! Trip to Seattle
I just got back from my day trip to Seattle and wanted to quickly make a post to let you know that I have quite a bit to report back on. I have some catch-up work to complete as well as some emails to send out at which point I will follow-up this post with the details.
[UPDATE: After finishing my first phase of emails I am realizing that the day has pretty much wiped me out. To ensure a quality report I am going to hold off until tomorrow.]
Posted by m.david at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 27, 2005
Pre-Evening Wrap-up
A quick post to mention I will be making a quick trip to Seattle tomorrow to meet up with Russ, Kurt, and possibly Miguel de Icaza to chat about various topics including Saxon.NET and directions for XSLT and XQuery on the Mono platform. Schedules are tight as the same time Russ begins his presentation (hes giving an AOSD presentation tomorrow after lunch) is the time Miguel needs to be to the airport so we're still unsure if our schedules will mesh. None-the-less, if there are any questions or comments you have in regards to the Mono platform and XML/XSLT/XQuery futures please email them to me and, if appropriate, I will try to chat with him about it. Theres always email and phone calls available at anytime so I am mentioning this really to help stir your imaginations and maybe to generate some momentum for open source project ideas. Let me know...
Posted by m.david at 04:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
Wednesday - Evening Update - Jonathon Bruce joins DataDirect, XForms XPI's for Mozilla
The evangelism for XQuery particular to DataDirect's offering received a boost when it was announced that Jonathon Bruce, formerly with Sun Microsystems, has joined DataDirect to act as their XQuery evangelist. As this press release points out:
Jonathan joins DataDirect from Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he served as the JDBC specification lead and architect for the Java Platform. While at Sun Microsystems, Jonathan led four Java Specification Request efforts and successfully patented technology that now forms an integral part of the latest J2SE and J2EE platforms. Jonathan's background also includes business development, sales support as well as inbound and outbound licensing consulting for the Java platform and database-dependent components of Sun's Java Enterprise System.
This is an obvious boost to DataDirect and XQuery in general. Without a doubt this should be interesting to watch.
XForms XPIs coming soon
As was recently pointed out on doron's blaahg XForms will be receiving a boost from the Mozilla project in the near future when XForms support will be available to Mozilla-based browsers via an XPI installable. This implementation uses the XTF technology which is the eXtensbible Tag Framework that came into existence post Mozilla 1.7. This is yet another big boost to the Mozilla project and will be interesting to see how the developers treat this new found luxury in client-side weblication development.
More to add to this post soon. 'Til then, enjoy!
Posted by m.david at 06:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2005
Evening Summary - New Code of the Day Atom, RSS 1.0 RDF, and RSS 2.0 feeds and content area now live
This will be a quick evening update as I have some matters to attend to but I wanted to quickly make note that while the template in use is temporary (will match the main site which; at current its only a partial match) the section is permanent and as soon as I have a chance I will add the feed to the main page to allow client-side transformation access. This section has its own Atom, RSS 1.0 RDF, and RSS 2.0 feeds as well as its own set of categories such that they can be further fine tuned into...
there respectful XSLT 1.0, 2.0, XPath 1.0, 2.0, XQuery 1.0, FXSL, EXSLT, etc... main code type and then further drilled into the type of problem they help solve... The hard URL for this main <XSLT:Blog/> category is found at http://www.xsltblog.com/codeoftheday/. The first entry for the category is from XSL-List today in which Dimitre Novatchev further expands with a complete code sample from Dr. Kays comments in regards to Data Types in XSLT 2.0. I plan to post as often as I find quality code samples that seem that they will be useful to the community as a whole. If you feel I have missed something on XSL-List, XML-DEV or any of the various forums please let me know. And if you have an entry you would like considered for Code of the Day please don't be ashamed. Speak up! If it helps solve a real world issue I have no reason to not post it so please, keep the code flowin' in... :D
Some quick but important news via Elliotte Rusty Harold regarding sXBL:
Cafe con Leche XML News and Resources
IBM's developerWorks has published my latest artivle, An Early Look at sXBL. sXBL is a descendant of Mozilla's XBL. The goal for it is fairly limited: really just a macro language for Scalable vector Graphics (SVG). However, I think it has more potential than perhaps its inventors realize, as I try to make clear in the article. In particular, I think it could become a very important stylesheet language that can take on tasks XSL and CSS just can't handle.
--- Very Cool!
More lead categories and related xml feeds to follow over the next few days as I tie together the loose ends of the site design, layout, and functionality. In the mean time, enjoy!
Posted by m.david at 07:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tuesday morning XSLT-related news brief and update on status of site rebuild...
Wow! It's been 4 days since I have made a post... I have no idea what happened to my weekend and now I wakeup and its Tuesday! While I have not spent any time writing content I have had a very productive development weekend for the new site design/functionality of which I have been pretty much posting in real-time -- It seems like an appropriate activity for a blog but if you found it annoying or confusing please let me know and I'll try to avoid it in the future. There's still a HUGE amount of work to be done but the client-side QuickScan/QuickView functionality is in place so feel free to pop-in and play around with it at will. Would love to get any feedback you have :) Which reminds me... email... uh oh 8-|
FYI... I am moving towards a new posting format for the site...
...allowing for more content to come from various sources that are either accessed client-side (via a live call to Technorati or other various weblog syndication sites) or from direct syndication from other XSLT-related blogs and such -- of which I will filter and summarize the good, bad, and the ugly at days end. I will also try to do a morning news update post on days that have a significant amount of news traffic. Otherwise I plan to create a secondary feed that will contain all news that seems important enough to post but then saving any comments for the end of the day summary. The potential exists for a huge amount of traffic to come through that particular feed as I begin to create more and more automation tools to gather and harvest XSLT-related news, commentary, code-samples, etc... from various disparate sources... Unless you have a desire to have instant access to this information I don't really recommend adding this feed to your feed reader as if you think I tend to post a lot wait until I add automation to the mix :)
The main purpose for this feed will be to pull and post an increase of XSLT-related content such that when the time is appropriate and you are looking for a specific XSLT-related item it will be available via a fine tuned search mechanism. As mentioned I plan to spend time at the end of each day filtering through this feed, finding that which seems important enough to post to the main feed, and then put it into one summary post. This will hopefully make it easier for both of us as it will reduce my time spent writing posts through out the day and will keep your feed reader a bit more manageable, at least from the XSLTBlog standpoint. Yet all of the content will still be made available, just in a more concise format.
Thats not to say that if the time/content seems worthy of a post I won't post it to the main feed. But the flood of news items that tend to come in with little or no comment will be shifted to one post at the end of the day and, if necessary, a morning post of overnight occurences... FYI... I tend to work on GMT even though I live in the states so my morning is based as such... so what will be a late afternoon summary post for those of you in the states is actually a late night, before I go to bed post... Not that this really matters all that much beyond having an understanding as to why a post marked "evening" is showing up at 3 in the afternoon and yet we live in or near the same time zone...
With that said theres a bunch of news-related items to reference so let me get these added to this post. Theres also some really good content from XSL-List regarding XSLT 2.0 and FXSL which I plan to cover eiter later today or first thing tomorrow... we'll see how the day plays out.
News from this last weekend and yesterday:
Stylus Studio and Mark Logic Announce Integrated XQuery ...
ArriveNet (press release) - Castle Rock,CO,USA
... com), the provider of the industry's leading XML content server, today announced the immediate availability of new, integrated XQuery development tools for the ...JAPISoft Announces a New Version of XFlows, an XML and XSLT ...
Emediawire (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA
XFlows is an XML and XSLT integrated solution, it helps you to create complex scenarios, transforming a set of files with XSLT, publishing your result into a ...IBM After Content Control
InternetNews.com - Darien,CT,USA
... DB2 Content Manager 8.3 and DB2 Document Manager 8.3 are the next step along IBM's path of improving the efficiency with which its products process XML. ...Datapower adds virtualisation with XS40 update
Computerworld Australia - Australia
New software features from XML(Extensible Markup Language) network hardware maker DataPower Technology
allow customers using its XS40 XML Security Gateway to ...
Navy
steams ahead with official XML rules
GCN.com - USA
Navy CIO David M. Wennergren said
in a memo that the rules will ensure that all service systems exchanging
data with XML are "based on a consistent set of ...XML Smell language developed by university
The Inquirer - England,UK
A RESEARCHER at Huelva University in Spain claims to have created a version of XML that can transmit smells. Or fragrances if you prefer. ...Posted by m.david at 06:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 20, 2005
New Site Design is now live but only half-way functional
I can't look another pixel in the face right now -- I have to get away from this monitor, from this computer, from this desk, and somewhere else that doesn't look anything remotely like it can render, process, or otherwise control my sanity by flashing 1x1 pixel lights at me a just enough hertz above what my mind can process as seperate images... but I know they're there... and its because I've reached this level of human-like emotional stand-off with my computer that I must go somewhere far-far away from here... Give me 8 hours or so and I'll be back raring to finish up all the details. In the mean time I think the general idea of where I decided to take this is there so if you can hold off from saying "but when I click this button it doesn't do anything" then I would love to come back to an inbox full of comments and critique. Thats how it gets better so hit me, I can take it! Uh oh, here comes my masochistic side again... run!
Bye for now :)
Posted by m.david at 08:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DataPower's XS40 XML Secure Gateway Wins Product of the Year
DataPower's XS40 XML Secure Gateway Wins Product of the Year - ebizQ
Congratulations DataPower!
Posted by m.david at 01:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
2000 free Websphere and XML certification vouchers being offered by IBM
CertCities.com | News: IBM Offering 2,000 WebSphere, XML Exam Vouchers
1/19/2005 -- IBM recently announced a free voucher offer for a number of its WebSphere and XML exams, although candidates must pass a $10 (U.S.) pre-assessment test to qualify.
The company is offering 2,000 free vouchers worldwide to candidates who qualify for them via online pre-assessments tests. Those who pass will be given a voucher for the related certification exam, which can cost up to $175 (U.S.).
Sweet!
BTW... Does anyone know of any other XML specific ceritications? I took this one last year just to say I had an XML certification and as far as I could tell IBM's "XML and Related Technologies" was the only certification for no product or implementation specific XML certifications (and it definitely cost's $175 to take the test and for $10 you can't help but want to at least get a sneak peak at the questions and style of the exam -- so for the $10 this is a pretty sweet deal!)
Posted by m.david at 12:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Introducing the Amara XML Toolkit
XML.com: Introducing the Amara XML Toolkit
Recently Uche Ogbuji, a member of the <XSLT:Blog/> Legends of the XSLT Community and avid hacker, writer, open-source contributer and lover of all music that is pure and decent (I mean that in a "pure sound" and "decent enough to enlist it in his music library for future listening" as opposed to the moral implications normally imposed on such a phrase) announced the release of his Amara XML Toolkit, a collection of XML tools for the Python development language. In this article Uche takes things one step further by introducing in further written detail the various tools made available via the Amara toolkit and examples of their usage. Thanks Uche!
Posted by m.david at 12:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2005
I'm always down for a good throw-down coding challenge... wait, did you say Norm Walsh... Oh, I'm sorry... ummmm, nevermind.
XML.com: Printing XML: Why CSS Is Better than XSL
I'm not sure how to interpret Norm's comments either. Was this a flat out statement of fact? If so I will simply hand in my CSS card on my way out the door and kindly ask Mr. Walsh for directions to whatever he might suggest as a better alternative.
I should admit ahead of time that the amount of information contained in my cranium in regards to which formatting technology is best for print output can be contained in a -- actually it can't be contained when it doesn't exist so I will simply state that this paper seems very well argued and if it wasn't for that lingering voice in my head suggesting that I'd best get some clarification first before I even start thinking about asking Norm for my card back. I will suggest though that the closing statement really seemed to suggest that the paper wasn't even really arguing against Norm's comments as much as seeing an opportunity to point out a "yeah, but..." to maybe gain some momentum from the fact that you're guaranteed to get more readers to filter this story for the simple fact that the opening statement suggested something which was bound to turn into some sort of cross-blog rumble between two power house technologists. Not a bad tactic ;)
Actually, this is a really good post in general in regards to technical content and worthy of a read regardless of any intonation of blogblood trickling from one or the others blognose. I'll give it 4em's on a scale 1-5em's. Given this is the first (and probably the last) em rating I have ever given to a post this suggest's that theres a good chance this post will hold the "Highest em rating ever on <XSLT:Blog/>" record for several years, if not more, to come. Nice work :) Maybe I'll make a little plaque or something to put... emmmm, no, nevermind.
Posted by m.david at 09:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Check, check... is this thing on?
Of all the bad things that come from your server suddenly and mysteriously disappearing from the internet there is one very, VERY, positive thing... no comment spam for the last 5 1/2 hours... ahhhhhhhh..... ain't life grand ;)
Still don't know that after 4 hours of traveling back to SLC(I've been up in Northern Utah -- Snow. Lots and LOTS of snow -- I walked into the office in which I have my main blogging server only to find that the power was mysteriously turned off. Guess its time to tear open the log files to see what may have caused the shutdown. Til' then I am enjoying the peace, quiet, and joy that comes from staring at a screen in which there is not one single comment spam to ban-and-boot.
Posted by m.david at 09:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Michael Kay discusses XSLT 2.0 Types on xsl-list
I had to take a few hours off of the new site design and focus on another project. I was just sending off a response in regards to this project when a pointer to this post from Michael Kay arrived on my radar screen. Can I first suggest if you are really interested in reasearching XSLT 2.0 from the inside-out that the best thing for anyone to do is to spend the $75 US Dollars, cheaper if you buy it online, and purchase Dr. Kays XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 titles. You can not find a better reference that goes any further into explaining XSLT (both 1.0/2.0 titles) and XPath (1.0 is covered in XSLT 1.0 book, 2.0 is its own seperate book) than through the very editor of the 2.0 specification, Dr. Kay. Go ahead, buy 'em, I'll wait here for you....
Ok, cool... While you are waiting for your package from Amazon to arrive heres something to tide you over :) Earlier today on XSL-List in response to a question regarding XSLT 2.0 Types Dr. Michael Kay writes:
>
> Maybe there is already a resource out there, but I can't seem
> to find a
> simple explanation. Maybe because its not so simple?It's not that simple, certainly not with 2.0 when schemas start to come into
the picture.I've covered it in my XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0 books, and it's certainly not
easy to condense into a quick message. But let's try a summary:The value of an XPath expression is always a sequence; a sequence contains
zero or more items; an item may be an atomic value or a node.The nodes fall into the same 7 kinds as XPath 1.0: elements, attributes,
text nodes, etc.Atomic values belong to one of the primitive types defined in XML Schema:
xs:integer, xs:string, xs:boolean, xs:date, and so on. Alternatively they
may belong to a derived atomic type, which permits a subset of the values of
a primitive type (e.g. all strings of length 6). This can be a user-defined
type defined in a schema, or a built-in type.If your source document has been through schema validation, then the
elements and attributes will be annotated with a schema type. This may be a
simple type or (in the case of elements) a complex type. For example, an
attribute annotated as xs:date contains a date. Complex types allow child
elements, simple types do not. Simple types may be atomic types (as above)
or they may be list types (a sequence of integers, say) or union types (a
decimal or a date). When in XPath you use a node in a context where atomic
values are expected, e.g. comparison or arithmetic, the typed value of the
node is extracted automatically (a process called atomization). This means
that if your schema declares attributes to be numbers, they will be
processed as numbers.You can declare the types of all the variables and parameters, function
results etc in your stylesheet. You don't have to: the default is item()*
which allows any value (any sequence of any items). For example, if you
declare a parameter as xs:integer? then the value must be either an integer
or nothing (an empty sequence). Where the variable holds nodes, you can
declare both the kind of node and the required type annotation: for example
a parameter that's an element holding a purchase order might be declared
as="element(purchase-order)".You can write XSLT templates based on types rather than names, for example
match="attribute(*, xs:date)" matches all attributes of type date. So you
can write one rule for formatting all such attributes, regardless of their
name.When your stylesheet constructs new elements, you can ask for them to be
validated against a schema. This both checks them for correctness, and
annotates them with types that are used in any subsequent processing. You do
this using the validation and/or type attributes on instructions such as
xsl:element and xsl:result-document. This means for example that if your
stylesheet fails to output a value for a mandatory attribute, you'll get an
error message saying so, and telling you exactly where the error in the
stylesheet is. In some cases you'll even get this error at stylesheet
compile time.You can ignore most of this and do dynamic typing as in XSLT 1.0 if you
prefer. But there are considerable software engineering advantages in
declaring your types: it means you get better error messages when you make
mistakes. In general, if you make coding errors in XSLT 1.0, your stylesheet
produces wrong output. The same mistake in 2.0 will often produce type
errors, reported often at compile time but at any rate at run-time.OK? If not, there's more in the book...
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/Posted by m.david at 02:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
JibJab's at it again...
While not as funny at the last two this is still worth a quick lunch time glance.
Posted by m.david at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Stylus Studio 6 XML Professional Edition, Release 2, w/ EDI-to-XML support
Recently on xml-dev Tony Lavinio, a Stylus Studio Engineer, announced:
Stylus Studio 6 XML Professional Edition, Release 2 is now available for
free trial download at: http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_download.htmlThe latest update of our XML IDE adds full support for Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI)-to-XML mapping in its Convert-to-XML legacy data
integration tool, and many new features and usability enhancements to
the Stylus Studio XML Schema Editor, Grid View, XML Mapper, XQuery
Editor and XSLT Editor.Some of the highlights of the new release include:
* Convert-to-XML: Full support for EDI-to-XML mapping, including
component and subcomponent fields, as specified in HL7, UN/EDIFACT and
ANSI/X12 specs, support for common datatypes including BCD (packed and
unpacked) Comp-3 (COBOL format), and Zoned – (IBM signed/unsigned
decimal), multiple match patterns, key/value pairs, lookup tables for
decoding field values, XML Namespace/DOCTYPE support in output
document, support for stop patterns to stop processing of a particular
region, and many usability enhancements.
* XML Schema Editor: Simultaneous text-diagram view/editing in the XML
Schema Editor, in-place editing of any XML Schema component
references, support for substitution groups, intelligent copy/paste,
enhanced XML Schema data model re-factoring capabilities, and many
usability enhancements.
* XML Grid View: Expanded support for visual XPath analysis, rename
element/attribute, remember column width & expansion state, and many
other usability enhancements.
* XML Editor: Updated XML editing and validation support for the XSV 2.8
XML processor.
* XSLT Editor: Updated support for the Saxon 8.1.1 XSLT processor.
* XML Data Server Connectivity: Integration with Mark Logic Content
Interaction Server 2.2 and Sleepycat DB XML 2.0For more information about the new features visit:
http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_product_new_features.htmlSincerely,
Tony Lavinio
Stylus Studio Engineer
http://www.stylusstudio.comPosted by m.david at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2005
When I think of "Legacy" I think Fortran and Cobol, not XML, XSLT, and Javascript
Microsoft CRM Customization – If You Give Up
And of course you should be familiar with all the legacy internet technologies, such as HTML, XML, XSLT, JavaScript and be good C#/VB/Net developer.
Isn't the term "Legacy" generally reserved for systems that are being phased out?
Ok, I can see the day that HTML is replaced by SVG, XUL, and XAML. Actually, I can see Atom, RSS(especially RDF), and other XML Syndication formats taking more and more of HTML's glory as we move further into a dynamic web structure where we define how we want the information formatted and by what markup language and interface. But then again I also think that Dynamic HTML, XHTML and CSS combined with Javascript and XSLT make an extremely powerful combination and we are going to see these technologies used together more and more rather than less and less. So in reality I can't see the day that HTML in one form or another doesn't take a commanding presence amongst the GUI markup technologies of the future.
I guess there's nothing really here to cry foul over but this isn't the first time I have seen this term used to describe technologies that, while competitors are in place, are not going away anytime soon and in fact will see more use in the future rather than less which, again, is generally the time I would think using "Legacy" would be appropriate. Just general ramblings, don't mind me... ;)
Posted by m.david at 10:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Altova to offer online XML development training
"With the new Altova Online Training program, our goal is to provide participants with a relevant and flexible program that helps them develop the comprehensive skills needed for implementing successful XML development projects."
Now this is an Altova product I could stand behind. I think. I would definitely and very highly recommend a live and in person training course from G. Ken Holman or Mulberry Technologies. In fact...
...pretty much any live training session is going to give you far more advantage than anything you do online but then again online courses have their advantages as well. From an online standpoint Altova would be a good company to provide such services so I will give props where props are due. If any of you happen to take a course from them and have comments I would love to hear about it. It would be fantastic to see a good set of structured online courses and training made available and if there is a company that has the resources as well as the expertise to pull something like this off and pull it off well it would definitely be Altova.
Posted by m.david at 09:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
via Slashdot | Are Extensible Programming Languages Coming?
Slashdot | Are Extensible Programming Languages Coming?
gManZboy writes "Programming writer and instructor Greg Wilson is proposing that the next generation of programming languages will use XML to store not only such things as formatting (so you can see indentation your way, and I can see it my way, via XSLT) but even programmatic entities -- like: <invoke-expr method="myMethod"><evaluate>record</evaluate></invoke-expr>. Wacky, but perhaps wacky enough to be possible?"
My first take on this title was "aren't all programming languages extensible" and then I came to my senses and realized the keyword here was "language" not "code base". My next thought was "it's not whacky at all and in fact they already exist right now."
Dimitre's FXSL library is a fantastic example of embracing XSLT and extending it to contain a more complete implementation of a pure functional language. The EXSLT project is another perfect example. Whats really funny to me is that this "concept" is considered new? Lisp, second (amongst languages still in use today) in age only to Fortran, is built entirely around the extensible concept as is a myriad of other examples. I should probably read more than the first snippet of this article before I question what is meant by this comment so for now I will just leave it at this. I was actually just taking a quick break before I go back under to finalize a few more things on this sites design as well as UnderstandingXSLT.com site design. I'll come back to this later and see what more there is to add or subtract from my comments...
Posted by m.david at 09:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Interwoven unfurls LiveSite
InfoWorld: Interwoven unfurls LiveSite: January 17, 2005: By Cathleen Moore : APPLICATIONS
To construct templates for an extranet, intranet, or Internet-facing site, IT developers first define the standard items that need to be shared across multiple sites and then create XML- and XSL-based components, company officials said.
Posted by m.david at 05:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Get your hands dirty with XQuery inside of SQL Server
In a recent comment on the post that Michael Rys recently linked to via a comment here on <XSLT:Blog/> (see previous post) Tum asks:
"Is there going to be a downloadable implementation for adventurous XML developers?"
In response Michael Rys points to the following downloads:
Hi Tum,
You can download the SQL Server Express Beta from
http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/sql/
or SQL Server 2005 Dev Edition from http://msdn.microsoft.com/SQL/2005/ (if you are an MSDN subscriber).
Posted by m.david at 03:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
RSS 1.1 Specification has been released
Describing this release as "...a bugfix version of RSS 1.0, being a popular XML-based syndication format" in a post to xml-dev Sean B. Palmer (And here I thought he was only good at snowboarding -- haha, pretty funny joke, huh? I thought of it myself. I plan a stand-up tour for next fall ;) writes:
I'm pleased to announce the release of RSS 1.1: a bugfix version of RSS 1.0, being a popular XML-based syndication format.
http://inamidst.com/rss1.1/ - RSS 1.1 Specification
This specification has been developed by a group of RSS 1.0 users including myself who sought not just to resolve the various bugs therein but also to improve the integrity of the specification in general, and provide RELAX NG and RDF Schemata.
To coincide with the release, we're also making available a number of tools, including an RSS 1.1 feed validator (using a SAX parser in Python), a converter (based on XSLT), a test suite, and various implementations for Movable Type, Wordpress, and others, all of which are linked to from the following guide:
http://inamidst.com/rss1.1/guide - A Rough Guide to RSS 1.1
Discussion of the format may be had in any of the following fora, depending upon the particular nature of the feedback:
- * xml-dev - Reply to this thread if you have comments about any XML related matters, especially including the validator and XSLT implementations.
- * irc.freenode.net #rss1.1 - For real time communication with the developers of the specification, and any general comments.
- * rss-dev mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/ For feedback on how RSS 1.1 relates to 1.0 and other syndication formats.
Specific typographical corrections may be sent directly to the editors, the contact details for whom are in the specification.
Thanks,
--
Sean B. Palmer, http://inamidst.com/sbp/
Posted by m.david at 01:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Oxygen 5.1 Now Available
In a recent post to XSL-List George Christian Bina writes:
Hi,
I'm glad to let you know that a new version of
is available. The main additions in version 5.1 are folding, code templates, better Relax NG support, Schematron validation and the possibility to use MSXML and XSLTProc as XSLT transformers.
The full list of new features with descriptions and a few video demonstrations can be found at: http://www.oxygenxml.com/index.html#new-version
I will describe shortly below the new features directly related with XSLT development.
The XSLT editor contains a large number of code templates (thanks to M. David Peterson) covering most of the XSLT constructs. The code templates are editable so they can be customized to specific needs or preferences.
Another addition is the possibility to select not only a DTD or an XML Schema but also a Relax NG schema for the XSLT result - this is used to offer content completion proposals when xsl:element is allowed. Version 5.1 adds XSLTProc and MSXML 3.0/4.0/.NET to the existing XSLT processors (Xalan, Saxon - both version 8 and 6.5.3 - and any other JAXP compliant processor). There are also improvements in the XSLT Debugger GUI - the tables from the different debugging views are now sortable. Also the dynamic content completion added a couple of new cases handling now parameter names in xsl:param and offering possible template names on xsl:template/@name.
In the end I would like to mention also the Schematron support, although it is not directly related with XSLT it uses XPath and the validator is implemented in XSLT. <oXygen/> offers now support for validating XML documents against Schematron schemas and against XML Schemas or Relax NG schemas with embedded Schematron rules.
Best Regards,
George
---------------------------------------------------------------------
George Cristian Bina
<oXygen/> XML Editor, Schema Editor and XSLT Editor/Debugger http://www.oxygenxml.com
As George mentioned I was given the opportunity to be a part of this release by adding my list of abbreviations and matching templates. I appreciate the mention but in reality I didn't do all that much. I simply put together the list of (version 1.0) templates that I use in jEdit and gave a few implementation suggestions. The cool part about that though is that there is now abbreviation/template support :) which was my biggest hold out to sqitching to <oXygen/> on a full time development basis. And given its integration into Eclipse it made the decision that much easier :) Thanks George for a wonderful product!
Posted by m.david at 01:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Golden Nugget in a River of Comment Spam
77 new comment spam to delete since last night at about 2am. A new record! Wait, thats not a good thing...
Is Viagra really all that difficult to obtain via normal means to justify the effort? Well, I guess it's not all that hard to build a comment spam bot so I guess it takes one buyer... Hmmm... well, while I look forward to my next batch of deletions please enjoy this tidbit of wisdom offered up my Michael Rys in a comment regarding my previous "Reasons for no XQuery on version 2.0 of the CLR..." post from last week:
http://www.xsltblog.com/archives/2005/01/understanding_x.html#comments
Thanks for the update Michael!
Posted by m.david at 01:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2005
Fantastic Weekend! Horrible Day...
In what I thought was going to be a fantastic day spent launching all sorts of new site designs, content, and code has instead turned into a day spent in frustrations after a late night coding session found a slight mishap which has fried my motherboard...
I think God is making me pay now for my comments from a week or two ago regarding the whole "God is a functional programmer -- Alpha and (C)Omega" metaphor... I'd linked to it but I am enjoying my current midi-sampler (I am currenly using a machine that can can do little more than access the internet and play midi show-tunes in a very ch op p ed up sequence) and would prefer to finish it out before He decides I haven't learned my lesson and fries this machine too. ;)
Hmmmmm... Well, maybe I'll get a machine up and running by the end of the day and tonight and tomorrow will be much more happy than today is (mind you, you might be amazed at just how happy a day can become when forced to listen to elevator music -- even REALLY BAD elevator music. You might even find yourself singing along like I am now :D I'm cancelling my Napster subscription. Who need's Napster when you've got midi! (you think theres a "Midi-Makers Association" that would find fault in "illegal" downloads? probably... guess Napster's safe for now ;)
BTW.. My head has been down for almost 4 (wait, make that 5) days now and if you have tried to contact me through means other than GMail chances are I haven't read your message yet. My apologies for this. I will hopefully be back on target soon!
In the mean time please enjoy a sampling of my favorite midi "show-tune" of sorts... Queens "Bohemian Rhapsody".
In case you would like to see along:
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
A little high, little low
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me
continued...
Enjoy your day! :) I know I will mine...
Posted by m.david at 03:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2005
Release of final committee draft of Namespace-based Validation Dispatching Language (bringing us one step closer to the "the document is the application" vision)
In a recent post to xml-dev MURATA Makoto writes:
Dear colleagues,
Let me announce the final committee draft of Namespace-based Validation Dispatching Language (ISO/IEC FCD 19757-4). NVDL is a language for dividing a multi-namespace document into single-namespace fragments and then invoke validators for these fragments. The main target of this language is a composite XML document that combines multiple formats, such as XHTML, SVG, SMIL and XForms.
This language has several ancestors: RELAX Namespace (JIS TR and ISO/IEC DTR), Modular Namespaces (James Clark), Namespace Switchboard (Rick Jelliffe), and Namespace Routing Language (James Clark). NRL is the closest ancestor.
ISO/IEC FCD 19757-4 is available at:
http://www.jtc1sc34.org/repository/0586.pdf
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~eb2m-mrt/dsdl/
Here are some pointers to talks about NVDL.
- Opening keynote speech for SVG Open 2004 (MURATA Makoto)
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~eb2m-mrt/svgopen/
- Namespace Routing Language (James Clark)
http://www.thaiopensource.com/relaxng/nrl.html
- XML 2003 session report: Namespace Routing Language (Uche Ogbuji)
http://www.xmlhack.com/read.php?item=2125
- Combining multiple vocabularies (MURATA Makoto)
http://www.idealliance.org/proceedings/xml03/slides/murata/murata.ppt
- XML 2003 session report: Combining multiple vocabularies without tears (Uche Ogbuji)
http://xmlhack.com/read.php?item=2123
Cheers,
--
MURATA Makoto
It has long been predicted that the document would eventually become the application. Declaritive markup languages such as XUL, XAML, and SVG have made significant inroads into making these predictions a reality. The release of this document outlining the ability to divide multi-namespace documents into single-namespace fragments for validation provides one more link in the chain that will eventually bring together this long sought after vision. Who can say how many years will transpire before we see a single document structure take the place of the existing plethora of document structures that exist. But if you don't think namespaces, meta-data, and mime-types have a significant spot cemented in our computing future you may want to read some of the above links and think through just how important the ability to describe to a multi-data-type processing system the type of information contained in a document will be when instead of opening an instance of Word we simply describe the data contained in our document and let the system that is rendering this information decide what component will be necessary to render this data properly. The time is now to begin thinking of software not in the sense of applications but in the sense of individual components that all work together in a harmonious symbiotic relationship to provide services as needed to a single flow of interlinked data. Huh, when you think of it this data-flow sounds kind of like RDF. And isn't C# a Component-Oriented language as opposed to just and Object-Oriented language. And isn't...
Ok, you can probably see where I am going with this. These technologies have long been in the incubators of the top software companies and research organizations (think-tanks, Universities, etc...) and this is just one more document showcasing proof positive that no matter what it may feel like via the internet-year way of thinking things are moving in a positive direction and we can continue to look forward to a world where .doc, .xml, .whatever no longer exists as part of our computing world. Not that these formats are going away, they will just exist inside an enclosed compound-document structure similar to that described above. Cool! :D
Posted by m.david at 10:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IKVM.NET Official 1.0 release posted to SourceForge
Fore those of you unaware Jeroen recently announced that he has posted the official 1.0 (0.10) release of IKVM.NET to SourceForge. Congratulations Jeroen!
Posted by m.david at 09:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A great XQuery Usage and Code example
I was recently pointed to this blog posting by Sam Pullara showcasing his use of XQuery to solve a real world issue with URL length on mobile phones when trying to access them on the web (via the number pad.)
A summary of the technologies used are as follows:
The service is running on Tomcat 5.0 and is completely written using JSP 2.0 and the JSTL. There are no scriptlets in the JSP pages and all code is abstracted into .tag files. It makes use of the Saxon 8 XQuery/XSLT engine for transformations, the JTidy library for cleaning up HTML pages, the DisplayTag library for showing tables, and PostgreSQL for storing all the data. The whole thing was built using IntelliJ 4.5.3 with my JSP 2.0 enhancements. If you have any questions or want to add some features to it, I can give you CVS access with good google references.
Very cool!
Posted by m.david at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Recent comments from Michael Rys regarding further insite into Microsofts reasoning for pulling XQuery from the next release of the .NET runtime
Understanding XML: Thoughts from VanX Talk
In a recent comment to Kurt Cagles recent entry regarding his talk at VanX last week Michael Rys writes:
Sorry that I missed your talk (the US consulate almost kept me long enough :-)). I think that we have not communicated that well what our strategy and reasoning for pulling XQuery from the .Net Framework (but not the SQL Server database) is. We plan to provide a clear statement on http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/ in the near future.
I'll definitely be keeping an eye out and will keep you posted as to anything that I see.
Posted by m.david at 09:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 15, 2005
Ummmm.... I'm not sure why but it seems that Mike Champion was another person who was inadverdently left off the "Legends of the XSLT Community" list
My most sincere apologies to Mike for this rediculous oversight. The funny thing is that I thought for sure I had him on there and so did the person who pointed this out to me. Hmmmmmm... well the problem is fixed now. Welcome (back?) Mike! Your presence in the community has long been appreciated and we look forward to what becomes of your presence at Microsoft :)
Posted by m.david at 08:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Python-Powered Templates with Cheetah
Posted by m.david at 03:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 13, 2005
Putting XML in the fast lane
Putting XML in the fast lane | CNET News.com
Posted by m.david at 08:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
An Extensive Examination Of Web Services: Part 2
An Extensive Examination of Web Services Part 2
Posted by m.david at 08:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
XML data validation with XPath and XSL
XML data validation with XPath and XSL: Builder AU: Web Development
Posted by m.david at 07:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Yet One More Reason to Buy Russells Book
"AspectJ Cookbook": Even Lazy Developers Can Write and Design Better Software
"This book is the one that I would have wanted on my desk when I first picked up AspectJ, and it's also the one that I still use," says Miles. "I use these recipes on a daily basis."
For those of you who would never even think of making such a statement think about it this way... don't we all tend to try and do this already? I mean we all take notes, sometimes.... and I know we all spend hours scrambling around looking for those notes until we finally give up and use some other hack to make it work... for now. So, if you are planning or are even thinking about making a plan to someday write a book... Then make it the book that you would want on your desk to reference as necessary. If you lose it I'd bet your publisher might even give you a new one :) We all know the "Cocky" and "Arrogant" developer who always claim they don't need to look something up... they practically wrote the book, right? WRONG!
Real writer/developers read and reference their own books all the time! Pretty down to earth quote if you ask me :) <-- That was a rhetorical question... please don't ask me ;) :D
Cheers Russ!
Posted by m.david at 01:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bold and Smart Move by Quark
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2005--Quark, Inc. today introduced QuarkXPress Markup Language (QXML), an XML schema of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) that will make it even easier for developers to create custom XTensions software for Quark's industry-leading page-layout software, QuarkXPress. The QXML schema fully describes the QuarkXPress file format in XML and enables QuarkXPress 6.5 XTensions software to be developed using industry standards and a wide variety of development platforms and languages, including Java, .Net, and many scripting languages.
Working with Standards
"For many years, valuable content has been locked in proprietary file formats, while the move towards multi-channel publishing has dictated that it can no longer be used just for print," said Juergen Kurz, Quark's vice president of product development. "With an industry-standard methodology for describing the QuarkXPress file format, our customers have greater security because their QuarkXPress content can be easily integrated into today's complex multi-channel publishing environments."
Easier Programming
One of the strengths of QuarkXPress is its strong developer community with hundreds of third-party XTensions modules available to augment the functionality of QuarkXPress to meet the diverse requirements of its customers. XTensions software developers have always programmed in C or C , but with QXML, developers can write XTensions modules for multiple platforms in C , Java, any language supported on the .Net platform (including C# and VB.Net), and scripting languages (including AppleScript, Perl, JScript and VBScript)....
Press release continues...
Posted by m.david at 02:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
.NET content management solution with built-in XML indexing
Ektron Supports Structured Content Strategies With XML Indexing Feature in a .NET Solution
AMHERST, NH -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/12/2005 -- Ektron Inc., today announced that the company's flagship .NET content management solution, CMS400.NET supports an end-to-end XML content strategy with built-in XML indexing that makes it easy and intuitive for Web site visitors to find and consume information. By structuring and indexing content, organizations can unlock the value of content and guide visitors to the right information.
Posted by m.david at 02:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I am begrudgingly posting this for the third time... this time minus my 47 pages of "suggestions" that might... well, nevermind... I have too much respect for Dare to go any further with this statement
I'm posting this because:
- I love COmega
- I consider Dare to be one of the most intelligent developers I've never met.I will say that there are some things stated which got me a little...
emmmm... well, they got me pretty fucking pissed off to be honest. I deleted them and am moving on. COmega is worth learning about and Dare is one HELL of a developer and writer. I feel comfortable leaving it at that, so I will.
Posted by m.david at 12:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Whoever said you can't take anything Dave Chappelle says serious obviously... wait, sorry, different Dave Chappell... I can't say for certain but I think that if this Dave says it you can just write your own check and deposit it on the way to the Bahamas!
That or I'm taking a tript to Alaska for the rest of the winter as if this all turns out like it sounds like it might.... I may just have a few extra hours in my pocket to play with this winter :D
The topic or queue can be directed at an MDB or a JCA adapter, a specialized integration service such as XML caching, XSLT transformation, or could be mapped administratively to call out to an external web service. This mapping is done using SOAP over HTTP, or even WS-Reliability/WS-ReliableMessaging as those protocols reach maturity and become prevalent. Chappell concedes that just how the "integration architect" would access the ESB service API has yet to be decided. But the current direction could allow APIs to be implemented using such familiar (and open) toolkits such as Apache SOAP or Axis, and could conform to popular Java standards, such as JMS, JAX-RPC and SAAJ.
Posted by m.david at 12:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
1 + 1 + 1 + 1, together these makes 4 -Now please give me to play with one so I can learn some more... :)
Computerworld | DataPower updates firmware for acceleration engine
[INSERT: That last title SUCKED! If you happend to see it... sorry! :D]
"We built this whole new engine that relies on compilation technology to accelerate schema validation," says Eugene Kuznetsov, chief technology officer for DataPower. Last year, the company patented the compilation technology, which turns XML processing instructions into a form that can be read by the acceleration hardware.
+1
DataPower also added XML parsing support for transforming XML messages into Java objects and into Binary XML, an emerging and controversial XML format supported by DataPower.
+1
The company added partial support for XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0, which include enhancements such as decimal support that support monetary computations made in applications.
Add +1 even more..
The XA35 firmware version 3.1 is available now and is free for current customers
They've opened there door so let's make it four.
Now all we need to find out is if it actually works the way that claim it does. I have no doubt that it will but it would be nice to get some field numbers. Anybody want to share?
Posted by m.david at 12:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
Extreme Markup Languages 2005 Call for Participation
In a recent post to XSL-List, B. Tommie Usdin, a member of the <XSLT:Blog/> "Legends of the XSLT Community" and founder of Mulberry Technologies (Maybe you've heard of her/them? ;) announced the Extreme Markup Languages 2005 Call for Participation. Please see the embedded links in the extended portion of this post to gain access to the various information available in regards to this very important XML industry conference.
A peer-reviewed technical conference. An unfettered festival of
unconventional markup. Pointy-brackets, pointed questions, and
sharp ideas. Nearly a week of geek speak.Extreme Markup Languages® 2005
Produced by IDEAllianceAugust 1-5, 2005
Hotel Europa, Montréal, CanadaExtreme Markup Languages is devoted to the theory and practice of
markup languages from industrial, academic, and other points of view.
It differs from other conferences partly in its unapologetic emphasis
on technical subjects and problems on the frontiers of current
practice, and partly in the participants it attracts. Extreme
typically has an unusually high concentration of markup theorists
computer scientists, linguists, taxonomists, publishers,
lexicographers, typographers, software developers, librarians, and
other people you want to spend time with - also anarchists,
curmudgeons, and deep thinkers - and a lower than average
concentration of managers in need of a clue.Topics are likely to include:
- XML, XSLT, XSL-FO, XPath, RSS, OWL, XTM
- XML querying and searching
- Knowledge representation: Topic Maps, RDF graphs, and semantic
networks
- Constraint languages: DTDs and schemas
- Metadata registries and unregistered metadata
- Anthropology of markup adoption patterns
- XML databases and content management systems
- Performance and other deployment issues
- Making the world mark-upable: ontologies, taxonomies, controlled
vocabularies, and PSI
- The Next Big Edge Case
- Chicken lips, overlap, and other things you can't talk about
without using your handsSpecific Calls for Participation now available:
Call for Papers: http://www.mulberrytech.com/Extreme/details.html
Call for Peer Reviewers:
http://www.mulberrytech.com/Extreme/peerapply.html
Call for Tutorials:
http://www.mulberrytech.com/Extreme/tutorialcall.htmlIf you worry that your topic lacks geek chic, run it by us: send us
email at extreme@mulberrytech.com. Case studies, software development
war stories, project reports, markup archeology, and news from
far-flung fronts in the war for better knowledge and information
management are all welcome at Extreme. Vendor softsoap we use to
line the birdcage.Details now at
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