Thanks, I'd heard rumors about this presentation but hadn't seen it.  Really 
thought provoking ... especially if contrasted with Adam Bosworth's almost 
diametrically opposite position expressed in 
http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=337

The way I (perhaps crudely) would characterize the positions are that Adam 
thinks that XML/RDF  is too complex to be useful, so "worse is better" 
things like HTML for text and RSS for data will become the mainstream 
technologies that are more derived from XML than really applications of 
generic XML.  Dana agrees that XML is too hard for mainstream developers to 
process, so we need better tools and some fixes to XML to make it more 
RDF-like.

I find myself more in Dana's camp than Adam's, but believe that XML/XQuery 
features will be absorbed into programming languages rather than vice versa. 
I do like her points about making XML more graph-friendly with links as 
first class citizens, but the implications could get messy ....

Her points about declarative processing of XML are particularly interesting, 
but contrast them with Anders Hjelsberg's discussion of the evolution of 
mainstream languages to be more declarative in 
http://microsoft.sitestream.com/PDC05/TLN/TLN307_files/Default.htm#nopreload=1&autostart=1


>From: "Ken North" <kennorth@s...>
>To: <xml-dev@l...>
>Subject: [xml-dev] Declarative XML Processing with XQuery
>Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 16:27:44 -0800
>
>Dr. Daniela Florescu of the W3C XML Query Working Group suggests a
>direction the industry should be taking with XML and XQuery processing:
>
>http://www.webservicessummit.com/People/DFlorescu.htm#DeclarativeXML
>
>Dana describes XML as more than a technology for documentation and data
>interchange. She suggests we haven't exploited XML to its fullest
>potential. She emphasizes the use of declarative programming instead
>of processing XML with imperative or procedural techniques.
>
>
>======== Ken North ===========
>www.WebServicesSummit.com
>www.SQLSummit.com
>www.GridSummit.com
>
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an
>initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org>
>
>The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
>
>To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription
>manager: <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/