size of XQuery developer community

[Daniela Florescu]

> a widespread lack of a _deep_ understanding of XML.

Hans-Juergen,

Yes, you are right.  There is a deep misunderstanding in IT of our  
core message
about the role of XML in the new architectures. XML is not syntax, it  
can/should be
the primary way of modeling data. XQuery is not a query language (oh  
well), but a
full blown (declarative) data processing language.

However, if the world misunderstands it, it is hardly the world's fault.

It is that we do not express this message in a clear, concise and  
convincing enough
manner -- and probably not in the right places, either.

I hope we don't have to wait 20 years for the message to be heard....

Best regards
Dana












> The vast majority of developers (and architects?) view XML  
> essentially as a portable encoding. In other words: they look at XML  
> at the lexical level, and they are not aware of the fact that the  
> XDM constitutes a global, uniform information model, composed of a  
> handful of concepts (sequence and item, six kinds of nodes, atomic  
> types). They do not suspect that URIs and the XPath language create  
> an information space in which any application is embedded and which  
> it can ignore or use. They have not grasped the concept of an  
> expression language whose values are information entities (that is,  
> instances of that information model). So they are not aware of a new  
> way of thought which strives to simplify things by designing  
> information processing steps  - consuming input
> information, emitting output information. The very concept of such  
> steps is not alive in their imagination; accordingly, they show no  
> interest in information processing languages (XSLT,  XQuery, XProc).
>
> Perhaps the heart of the problem lies at the question how to  
> integrate this new, information oriented view into object  
> orientation. The latter, of course, remains _the_ paradigm, the  
> former can only be a complement. It cannot replace object  
> orientation, but it should and will modify how it is applied: it  
> should influence the main abstractions governing a system design.  
> Example: if you have to process external messages coming from  
> different partners, having similar information content but different  
> schemas, the obvious approach is to design an internal format, write  
> software covering the functionality by processing/producing internal  
> messages, and transform messages between external and internal  
> format. To get the transformations done, all one has to do is write  
> one class, which is configured by an XML file mapping format pairs  
> to the names of stylesheets and or queries. I said "obvious", but  
> experience tells me it is not obvious at all.
>
> I think the complexity of information to be consumed and produced is  
> growing steadily. I wonder how absurd the waste of time and energy  
> must get before the common awareness of XML deepens. Object  
> orientation was invented (I think) in 1967. It became widely known  
> more than 20 years later. This shows that it may be difficult to  
> guess..
>
> With kind regards,
> Hans-Juergen Rennau
>
>
>
> ----- Ursprüngliche Mail ----
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:17:05 -0700
> From: Daniela Florescu <http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
> Subject: Re:  size of XQuery developer community
> To: Adam Retter <http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
> Cc: http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk, Marcus Clemens <http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
> Message-ID: <http://x-query.com/mailman/listinfo/talk>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> I got several private answers to this question, all with the same
> comment:
> in all cases people looked for XQuery developers and cannot find any.
>
> Unfortunately XQuery will remain a niche language if this situation
> persists.
>
> How did other languages/communities solve this kind of growing pain ?
>
> Any suggestions ?
>
> Thanks !!
> Dana
>
>
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