... otherwise known as,
Premature Male-Pattern Baldness
Alex Bosworth's Weblog: Ajax and XSLT in Web Development
I especially like Google's choice to be agnostic about namespaces, as XML namespaces make me want to tear my hair out.
I tell ya... I was this >< close to taking this piece and dissecting it into billion little "Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Here's A Phreakin' Clue For Freebie" pieces... (and there are about 15 places that, in fact, made me want to rip out my own hair! Just not for the same reasons. [hint: XML NAMESPACES ARE MIND NUMBINGLY EASY TO UNDERSTAND!!!]
That said, here's why I chose not to:
I've been running into a lot of barriers with JavaScript when it comes to speed. JavaScript is just slow, and even modern processors (or my now obsolete PowerBook) start to choke very quickly under heavy load, resulting in a poor user experience, or worse, appearing to stall the browser completely.
It's FANTASTIC to see that folks that just so happen to share their basic genetic profile with Adam Bosworth, and as such are going to garner both attention and immediatte respect, are coming out and stating what should be PAINFULLY obvious to anyone who's been around this industry long enough to understand that building production applications on top of ANY system that doesn't at VERY LEAST pre-compile to byte-code with debug symbols is just a bad idea all-together... read-eval-print loop (REPL) is GREAT for development, but if we were to expect the folks using our applications to simply accept "just how wonderful a REPL-based life truly is", Liberal Arts and Computer Science would be one-in-the-same in our modern-day curricula. {in fact, one might argue that they ARE one in the same... then again... ;)]
This might be an area that the XSLT processors in browsers can assist, as seen in Johnvey's del.icio.us director.[2] Filtering in XSLT has the potential to sidestep a lot of the Javascript speed barriers, although unfortunately a significant minority of browsers don't have that much support for XSLT.
Okay, I LOVE the general message here... but um... ummmm.... hmmmm.... how should I put this??? ...
Hmmm... ["BREATHE M.! BREEEAAATTHEE DAMN IT!!!"]
Please hold...
[HoldMusic("Lawrence Welk's Greatest 'Elevator Music From Hell' Hits"):Start]
[DEEP BREATH] and
[RELEASE] and...
[HoldMusic("Lawrence Welk's Greatest 'Elevator Music From Hell' Hits"):Stop]
Okay, we're back...
Firstly, how 'bout a HUGE round of applause for Lawrence Welk and ALL of...
Oh wait, I'm sorry... What I meant was,
"How 'bout a swift kick-in-the-a$$ to whomever it was that decided
-- "Let's get an orchestra to play songs that should have never made it on to vinyl in the first place, and yet because it's our 'users' priviledge to be in OUR good graces in the first place, everyone should simply smile and accept the fact that its not THEIR choice, and instead OURS, what music they get the priviledge of listening to in the first place, only when WE say THEY can...Oh, and only on the devices WE say they can listen to them on as well... YEEHA!" --
and thought "hey, that's a great idea!"
Okay then, now where were we...
Oh yes... firstly,
"Filtering in XSLT has the potential to sidestep a lot of the Javascript speed barriers"
Sometimes its so obvious its painful, huh?
Yeah...
Alright then... next up,
"a significant minority of browsers don't have that much support for XSLT."
Ummm.... "a significant minority of browsers"?
"a significant minority of browsers"??
"a significant minority of browsers"???!!!
["BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTHEE DAMN IT, BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTHEE!!!"]
[HoldMusic("Lawrence Welk's Greatest 'Elevator Music From Hell' Hits"):Start]
Ahhh, HELLL NO!!!! THATS IT...
[DEEP BREATH] and
[RELEASE] and...
[DEEP BREATH] and
[DEEP BREATH] and
[DEEP BREATH] and
[DEEP BREATH] and
["Not so fast or your'e going to hyperventilate and pass out"] and
[DEEP BREATH] and
[RELEASE] and...
[RELEASE] and...
[HoldMusic:Error("System can not loc;
[SYSTEM:CRASH(REASON("There seems to be some sort of foot or somethin' lodged in the side of me.")] and...
[RELEASE] and...
[RELEASE] and...
[RELEASE] and...
[DEEP BREATH:SIGH(:type("relief"))] and...
Okay then, I feel better...
Alright, with that now in the past, how about I just leave at this,
That's like the most twisted, back-a$$wards way to promote "Google's choice to be agnostic about namespaces" as there is nothing thats MORE wrong with Google's AJAXSLT project that its current "agnostic" approach to XML Namespace support as part of the Javascript XPath engine portion of this project.
That said, I can understand how using the term "significant minority" can be *somewhat* justifiably used in the current snapshot of browser-based XSLT support, but before Opera's recent "browsers-that-still-matter" resurgance they were the only browser left that didn't provide an implementation of XSLT, and while I understand the need for and am EXTREMELY grateful that Google decided to create the AJAXSLT project, using the term "significant minority" at this stage of the game???
Well, I'll just keep my mouth to the <Oxygen /> tank for a bit longer... how's that for compromise ;) :D
Enjoy your Sudden [But Shouldn't Have Been] Realization That "You Mean I Can Replace ALL Of This Javascript Code With One XSLT Instruction Element and Function and I Could Have Been Doing This In 97% of ALL Browsers In Use For The Last Four Years???!!! .... DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!"-enhanced Day! :)
---
<xml:namespaces level-of-diffuculty="EASY, EASY, EASY!"> : What makes them difficult is not XML Namespaces in and of themselves, its the fact that by only embracing enough of XML Namespaces to get your XML to properly transform without spending a few minutes reading a Jeni Tennison XML Namespaces tutorial forces you to learn bad "over-thinking" habits.</xml:namespaces>
[PLEASE NOTE: Please don't post any "technically using the XML namespace is..."-type comments or I will "Technically" beat your silly little Virtual Smart A$$ ;) (smile and know that your Momma still loves you despite your "Itsy-Bitsy Teenie-Weenie 'M. Just Kicked My A$$', That Meanie!" whining self. :D]
---
[2] - I took the liberty to hack the link and point instead to the same project listed in the "Code of the Day" section of this blog]
Posted by m.david at 07:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger � Cede search to Google?
Come on Yahoo. Steve Rubel is right. There is so much left to do it isn’t even funny and if a company discovers a better way to do search they can take share away from Google (which, yes, does have a monopoly share of the search market). I can’t find a ton of stuff on Google, though, the job simply is NOT done! Google hasn’t even tried to do good blog search yet, for instance. Technorati/Feedster/Pubsub kick Google’s ass, which is really sad cause all three aren’t very good at bringing you the best bloggers.
So I agree with the first part of this... there's so much to do, its not even funny. Where I immediatelly take an about face and state "EXCELLENT MOVE YAHOO!" is where Scobel and company suggest this was a bad move. Bad move?
Nope.
Let me put it to you another way...
The future of the search, isn't.
Still confused?
Yahoo!'s not. Neither is Google.
Why put all of that money into acquiring Blogger to then sit on it for all intents and purposes, as is, for a couple years if you were of the belief that in and of itself Blogger 2003 = Blogging 2007+?
It's not. So why push that direction?
If delivering the 'there's so much to do' pieces was really deemed as 'MISSION CRITICAL' in the here and now, with as much talent they now have on 'campus' (does Google have a campus?), don't you think they would have delivered by now?
As such,
Q: Why haven't they?
A: What's the rush?
We're not ready for the paradigm shift yet so to force such a shift now goes beyond *ANY* justifiable business logic. Take for example:
During his Microsoft years Adam Bosworth and his group of developer heavyweights built IE4, DHTML, the XML parsers and processors, the XMLHTTP object, etc... etc... etc..., delivered them.... and
7 years later the world caught up (in terms of both recognition, support on other platforms (XmlHttpRequest), and bandwidth capacity in regards to both high-speed internet access, and processor capability)... And gave it the name of a bathroom cleaner.
Given his position at Google, do ya think Adam Bosworth might be taking the "the web is not ready for this yet... Let's take the time to both build this to perfection and not deliver it until the web is ready for the next step." stance?
I personally can't say one way or the other, as I have no clue...
But it certainly does seem to make a lot of sense.
Speaking in terms of Yahoo!... They have the same level of talent on their 'campus' (same question as above?). They've made a very pointed effort to focus on recruiting folks like Micah Dubinko (W3C XForms Spec Editor) and Dave Beckett (W3C RDF Core and Data Access WG) who, while they undoubtedly have the ability to build a great search engine, are instead focused on XML data binding, presentation, and interaction, and HARD CORE semantic web core technology development.
Do you think Yahoo! might recognize something these other folks seem to have set aside as trivial?
Yep!
What Yahoo! just did (in my opinion, anyway) had nothing to do with conceding and everyting to do with pure and simple GENIUS!
Instead of pushing resources into areas who's shelf-life (in its current "text input box" form) has less than a couple of years left, they've instead sent Google a message...
The message?
"We get it."
"Ready to to take this to the next level?"
LETS GET READDDDYYYY TOOOO RUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLE!!!!!!!!
---
"ba ba ba bapa bapa, ba ba ba bapa bapa, ba ba ba bapa bapa, ba ba ba bapa bapa, , ba ba ba bapa bapa, , ba ba ba bapa bapa, , ba ba ba bapa bapa,
"YA'LL READY FOR THIS?
"badup bapa bapa."
Things are about to get interesting in this space...
I'd stay tuned for this one for sure :)
Posted by m.david at 07:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Um, that was wierd... I went to send an email from Outlook and instead of hitting Ctrl + Enter I hit Tab + Enter (the equivalent to Ctrl + Enter in GMail). Huh... wierd... Not sure if Adam Bosworth had or has anything to do with GMail (based on an old Blog entry of his my impression is that he didn't or doesn't anymore at least) but I am adding it to "The Adam Bossworth Effect" category none-the-less.
Posted by m.david at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Before anybody even has a chance to start typing:
Dear <XSLT:Blog /> Editor (A.K.A. M. David Peterson):
You are an idiot for leaving Adam Bosworth off this list... [followed by whatever other choice words you might have for me because of this...]
can I just say that it was reading Adams latest post that reminded me of this obvious fact and got me going on this kick to get this list updated with each individual and/or entity that so rightfully deserves a spot as a member of this exclusive list of developers and entities who have had a positive affect on the XSLT development community as a whole. It also reminded me that I have planned for some time now to begin a section on this blog called "The Adam Bosworth Effect" which will be devoted to bringing to light the effect that Adam Bosworth has and will continue to have on each and every one of our lives, whether we be a computer user, developer, or both (giving way to the fact that not all developers are also users; a strange anomaly, yes, but a fact none-the-less.)
So, with that said I would first like to Welcome Adam to the "Legends of the XSLT Community" in which he most definitely deserves a spot right next to James Clark himself as it is my belief that without the work of Adam Bosworth and his team of developers working on MSXML XSLT would have in no way reached the level of acceptance and use that it has today. I would also like to welcome the Microsoft Corporation to this list as it can most definitely be said that without Microsoft their would be no MSXML (ok, maybe too obvious of a statement) and furthermore without the embrace of XML and the early adoption and support of XSL via MSXML 2.0 (something that, ironically, can easily be pointed to as a reason we haven't seen an immediate jump to support the XSLT 2.0 standard -- burned once by early adoption of a standard why would you adopt and provide support for a standard that, as of yet, is still not a final recommendation of the W3C?) XSLT could in NO WAY be where it is today as far as its infiltration into nearly every area of an application, be it corporate or shrink-wrapped, client, client-server, or all-of-the-above.)
I will be following this with much, much, much more.... but first let me be the first to officially welcome Adam Bosworth and the Microsoft Corporation into their rightful spots as members of the "Legends of the XSLT Community" here at <XSLT:Blog />
Welcome Adam! Welcome Microsoft! Your contributions to this community I don't believe have ever been given the proper credit they deserve. I most certainly plan to do my part in changing that. Thank you for all that you have both done to help bring XSLT into the hands of each and every developer and computer user across the world.
Posted by m.david at 02:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack