mikechampion's weblog : Project LINQ and XML - Some reflections
I have specifically held off from posting commentary regaring LINQ and XLINQ because I simply don't have ANY time at the moment (if you only knew how serious 'ANY time' truly is... but I'm loving every second of it and hopefully you will too when you see the results...) to give such a massive topic the time it needs for proper coverage. Suffice it to say I think its absolutely FANTASTIC and can't wait to get my hands on it ASAP. A lot of people deserve a ton of credit for pulling this together and I assure you that when the time is right, proper credit will be given and then some.
In the mean time, I thought you might enjoy the following snippet from a comment that was left on Mike Champion's post from yesterday attributed to "XML Team" in which an assumption regarding future MS-sponsored XSLT 2.0 support should be quite easy to establish.
Also, take note of what is said regarding XQuery:
no matter how geeked up we might be about LINQ/XLinq, if the market wants XQuery they're gonna get XQuery. The market spoke (well, actually it SCREAMED) that it wants XSLT 2.0 as soon as the spec is final and we can release a good implementation.
Two things:
- If you want something bad enough, SCREAM IT so Microsoft can hear you... The XSLT community did just that and it seems pretty obvious to me what the result is going to be... NICE WORK XSLT COMMUNITY!!!
- Whether the naysayers will swallow this one whole or not, Microsoft *DOES* listen. If the XQuery community wants XQuery support beyond that in which is available in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Express (free, slightly limited functionality client-side version of SQL Server 2005) then it seems pretty obvious that if they/we speak-up and let their/our voices be heard, that too will be delivered as requested.
'nuf said.
For the sake of keeping a local record I will copy the entire comment below. But please visit the above link to Mike Champions post and if you feel the need, leave a comment of your own.
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On the question of how XLinq affects the chances for XQuery in the .NET client .... First, XLinq is a statement of a vision, not a concrete product plan. The idea is to get feedback from outside the rather small group that has worked on it so far. For example, it would be interesting to hear from XQuery fans on what XQuery does that LINQ doesn't, other than run on multiple platforms of course.Ultimately, decisions such as this are BUSINESS decisions; no matter how geeked up we might be about LINQ/XLinq, if the market wants XQuery they're gonna get XQuery. The market spoke (well, actually it SCREAMED) that it wants XSLT 2.0 as soon as the spec is final and we can release a good implementation. So far, the market seems to be whispering that it might possibly be interested in an XQuery client-side implementation, someday.
I know that *my* loss of interest in trying to convince Soumitra that XQuery should go back in .NET coincided with learning about what we now call LINQ once I started at MS. It will be very interesting to see if other people have a similar reaction or not.
XmlTeam