size of XQuery developer community

[David A. Lee]

> Let's rephrase my question: how does XQuery exist this vicious circle ???
>
>

Use it ?

At my Day Job, I started playing with XQuery 3+ years ago after 
attending a session at XML2005.
I started using it as a prototype language to get some work done that 
needed to get done and I wanted to see if I could use XQuery to do it 
easier then Java.   I fully intended to to rewrite it in "pure java" 
once the prototype phase was done but found <gasp> that I didnt need to.
The XQuery part worked just great, so I put it into the release product.  
I then discovered the next layer up was annoying.  I had to write a 
bunch of "framework" code in Java just to arrange to *call* xquery ( you 
know, find the input files, get the xquery files, setup the parameters, 
call it, serialize the results etc).
The framework/glue code was almost as bad as having to write the XQuery 
stuff in java in the first place (say using DOM).
Every call to XQuery took about 50-100 lines of java to setup and tear 
down properly.  Its a hard sell when you have to write 100 lines of 
"wrapper" code to call 50 lines of XQuery ... of course I didnt tell 
anyone :) I was enjoying XQuery so much I just pushed forward.
Then I experimented with ways of efficiently scripting this wrapper code 
so I didnt have to rewrite what was essentially boilerplate Java just to 
use XQuery ... That itself started as a prototype to get the Next job 
done ... A scripting language that could call XQuery without the 
investment of writing a bunch of wrapper code so I could "just do XQuery 
efficiently" and not spend 50% of my time coding around it.
Hence was born xmlsh.   Which I originally intended just to use as a 
prototype tool itself ... but turned out it ran as well or better then 
my hand-coded java so I kept *that* ... Now 3 years later I've got 
XQuery firmly embedded in the production data processing of many pieces 
of the enterprise.

But my *new* problem is training other engineers with XQuery so they can 
maintain this codebase and add to it.
Its an uphill battle but slowly being won.   I've hit much resistance 
from people, such as Ruby programmers who have said "I'd have to go to a 
week training class just to understand that" to Java programmers who say 
"I'd rather just do it in pure Java because everyone knows these high 
level languages aren't powerful enough" to just plain old "I barely 
learned DOM programming and now you want me to learn something else ? Ug!"

But back to the question.   Just use it and get it into production systems.

Then other people will have to learn it to maintain it.  If you can kick 
them into it and they don't just rewrite it all in their own language of 
choice because they don't want to learn something new ...
I *have* been successful at turning some minds though .. after showing 
hard-core Java programmers what you can do in a few lines of XQuery and 
then showing them the equivalent Java code they some start to get it.  
But the learning curve is tough for many.  I don't think I've been 
successful at talking anyone into using xquery if they had to start from 
scratch, only if they were maintaining existing code that required it.  
Some have said they'd "like to" but don't actually do it.  Its easy to 
fall back on something you know.




-- 
David A. Lee
http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk  
http://www.calldei.com
http://www.xmlsh.org
812-482-5224