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XML Daily Newslink. Thursday, 06 December 2007
A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
Provided by OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org
Edited by Robin Cover

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This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by
SAP AG http://www.sap.com
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HEADLINES:

* XML Conference 2007 Second Day
* OGC Seeks Comment on OGC Candidate KML 2.2 Standard
* Software Components: Coarse-grained Versus Fine-Grained
* Nokia Cell Phone Comes With E-Mail, XHTML Browser
* Microsoft Furnishes Financial Statements Using New Interactive Data Tags
* DataDirect Updates XML Converters and XQuery Engine
* Programming is Hard, Let's Go Scripting...

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XML Conference 2007 Second Day
Keith Fahlgren, O'Reilly Technical

This is the continuation of blogging from XML Conference 2007. There
are, of course, a lot of folks blogging about the conference. (1)
Dorothy Hoskins: Outside-In XML Publishing... What role can XML
play at the prettiest end of the print production spectrum? Instead
of struggling with XSL-FO in these cases, develop XML outside of
your formatting system and then eventually import your content near
the end. Both InDesign and FrameMaker are good options for this route.
FrameMaker 8 has good integration with DITA, in particular. (2)
Lisa Bos: Current Trends in XML Content Management Systems... Since
2000, publishers have grasped the importance of XML, but in the early
days there were not any solutions that fit them well. Today, there
are a huge numbers of XML products targeted toward publishers, some
of which is actually helpful. (3) Robin Doran and Matthew Browning:
BBC iPlayer Content production: The Evolution of an XML Tool-Chain...
The iPlayer is being developed to allow streaming of scheduled BBC
TV and Radio shows. The scheduling information itself is quite complex
and delivered in the emerging XML standard called TVA, which the BBC
is helping along. (4) Micah Dubinko WebPath: Querying the web as XML
Web Tools... Pulling random XML off of the web rarely works as promised,
though some have exaggerated this problem. (5) Mark Birbeck: XForms,
REST, XQuery, and skimming... The client in web applications is too
thin and provides insufficient technology to make building web
applications easy. XForms explicitly allows these functions to be
broken discretely apart. With XForms, as with Ajax, automatic UI updates
without reloads are possible, but this bit is well publicized. Less
commonly talked about is the ability to drive the UI with data
types -- datetimes with a date selector.

http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/12/xml_conf_2007_second_day.html
See also Elliotte Rusty Harold blog: http://www.cafeconleche.org/oldnews/news2007December3.html

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OGC Seeks Comment on OGC Candidate KML 2.2 Standard
Staff, Open Geospatial Consortium Announcement

The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. announced a call for public comment
on a draft OpenGIS Encoding Standard (OGC KML) for KML 2.2, a XML-based
encoding schema for expressing geographic annotation and visualization
on existing or future web-based online maps (2D) and Earth browsers (3D).
The draft OGC KML 2.2 standard formalizes the KML 2.2 model and language
while remaining backwards compatible with existing KML 2.2 files. In
comparison with the Google KML 2.2 Reference, the draft standard defines:
(1) the KML 2.2 geometry encoding and interpolation model; (2) an
extension model in support of application profiles; (3) conformance
requirements and test cases. The submission of KML into the OGC consensus
process by the RFC Submission team led by Google and Galdos Systems Inc.
ensures that KML will be aligned with international best practices and
standards, thereby enabling greater uptake and interoperability of Earth
browser implementations. The public comment period will remain open
until January 4, 2008.

http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/802
See also the text of KML 2.2: http://xml.coverpages.org/OGC-KMLv22-BestPractice.pdf

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Software Components: Coarse-grained Versus Fine-Grained
Michael Beisiegel, Dave Booz, Mike Edwards (et al.), IBM developerWorks

SOA is about providing software capabilities through interfaces called
services and supporting the business concept known as service orientation,
where applications are built as sets of services with service users
unaware of how or where services are implemented. Beyond the interfaces
(which are a key part, but not the only part of a good SOA) are software
components and component models. Component models are useful for building
new SOA services from the ground up, but they're also useful for creating
SOA services from legacy IT assets. You can use component models to
provide abstraction of legacy services and to re-engineer existing
legacy assets, especially when the component model supports language
neutrality. This article asserts that coupling is only one aspect of
granularity, but does support the current industry thinking that, in
general, loosely coupled components are coarse grained, while tightly
coupled components are more likely to be fine grained. It gives you a
set of guidelines for categorizing software component technology in the
context of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), positioning the various
component technologies that are prevalent in the industry today. The
authors explain why Service Component Architecture (SCA) offers a
natural model for coarse-grained components. SCA provides a natural
model for coarse-grained components. SCA supports a wide variety of
component implementation technologies and is capable of connecting
between those heterogeneous technologies. Asynchronous and synchronous
interaction styles are supported, along with a wide range of
communication technologies.

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soa-granularity/
See also the OASIS Open Composite Services Architecture (CSA) Member Section: http://www.oasis-opencsa.org/

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Nokia Cell Phone Comes With E-Mail, XHTML Browser
Elena Malykhina, InformationWeek

T-Mobile on Tuesday began offering the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 6263, a
classic clamshell cell phone with enhancements, such as e-mail
capability and a XHTML browser. The T-Mobile Nokia 6263 is a classic
clamshell phone that comes with e-mail capability and a XHTML browser.
The Nokia 6263 is not a costly multimedia device like the ones recently
launched by Nokia as part of its Nseries, but it does fulfill most
basic functions required by mobile users. For example, the phone is
capable of receiving e-mail with attachments and it can be used for
Internet browsing via a built-in XHTML browser. According to the
announcement: "For the productivity-minded owner, the Nokia 6263
includes e-mail capability with support for attachments, a powerful
XHTML browser, support for Java and Flash Lite content, and can easily
be synchronized to a desktop by using Nokia's PC Suite software,
which can be downloaded for free."

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml
See also the W3C XHTML2 Working Group: http://www.w3.org/2007/03/XHTML2-WG-charter

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Microsoft Furnishes Financial Statements Using New Interactive Data Tags
Staff, Microsoft Announcement

Microsoft Corp. announced that it has "filed a Form 8-K furnishing
financial information from its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended
September 30, 2007, in interactive data format. With this filing,
Microsoft was the first company to provide financial information
using newly issued sets of interactive data tags ("taxonomies") that
use Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) technology.
Microsoft furnished a full set of financial information including
its financial statements, footnotes, and Management's Discussion
and Analysis using the latest U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles taxonomy released by XBRL US on December 5, 2007. In
providing interactive financial information under the newly released
taxonomies, Microsoft continues its long-standing support of the
Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) vision to offer investors
the power of financial information in XBRL. Microsoft has been a
pilot participant in the SEC's voluntary XBRL filer program since 2005.

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/dec07/12-06DataTagsPR.mspx
See also the EDGAR Online announcement: http://www.edgar-online.com/investor/news/120607.aspx

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DataDirect Updates XML Converters and XQuery Engine
Staff Writer, Computer Business Review Online

Connectivity software developer DataDirect Technologies has launched
version 3.1 of the XML converter and XQuery engine at the XML 2007
conference and exposition in Boston. According to DataDirect, the
new version of XML converters for Java and .NET provide bi-directional,
programmatic access to non-XML files, including electronic data
interchange (EDI), flat files and other legacy formats. It also
offers API support to dynamically fetch the XML schema for conversion
and standard exchange format (SEF) support for custom EDI needs.
The company said that the converters also support B2B integration
standards such as X12, EDI for administration commerce and transport,
international air transport association (IATA), and Health Level
Seven (HL7). From the text of the announcement: "DataDirect XML
Converters plug into the DataDirect XQuery product, an enterprise-grade
XQuery processor that supports the W3C standard and allows data to be
easily transformed, aggregated and enriched -- providing seamless
integration for all data formats supported by the DataDirect XML
Converters. DataDirect XQuery version 3.1 includes expanded database
support for both the Enterprise and Community edition of MySQL server
and full update support for relational data including Oracle 11g,
Informix, and PostgreSQL. Featuring extended file type support and
output enhancements, DataDirect XQuery version 3.1 further simplifies
the performance of combining and processing heterogeneous data sources.
The product now supports the ability to query new office document
standards like OpenDocument Format, Office Open XML and XML-based
versions of PDF."

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=57AEAE56-21EC-451F-98A8-E8B0D46D3F55
See also the announcement: http://www.xquery.com/press/2007-12-05-new-release.html

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Programming is Hard, Let's Go Scripting...
Larry Wall, O'Reilly Perl.com

I think, to most people, scripting is a lot like obscenity. I can't
define it, but I'll know it when I see it. Here are some common memes
floating around: Simple language; "Everything is a string"; Rapid
prototyping; Glue language; Process control; Compact/concise;
Worse-is-better; Domain specific; "Batteries included." ...I don't
see any real center here, at least in terms of technology. If I had
to pick one metaphor, it'd be easy onramps... If you allow a language
to mutate its own grammar within a lexical scope, how do you keep
track of that cleanly? Perl 5 discovered one really bad way to do it,
namely source filters, but even so we ended up with Perl dialects
such as Perligata and Klingon. What would it be like if we actually
did it right? Doing it right involves treating the evolution of the
language as a pragmatic scope, or as a set of pragmatic scopes. You
have to be able to name your dialect, kind of like a URL, so there
needs to be a universal root language, and ways of warping that
universal root language into whatever dialect you like. This is
actually near the heart of the vision for Perl 6. We don't see Perl
6 as a single language, but as the root for a family of related
languages... Among the generalists, the conventional wisdom is that
the worse-is-better approach is more adaptive. Personally, I get a
little tired of the argument: My worse-is-better is better than your
worse-is-better because I'm better at being worser! Is it really
true that the worse-is-better approach always wins? With Perl 6
we're trying to sneak one better-is-better cycle in there and hope
to come out ahead before reverting to the tried and true worse-is-better
approach.

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2007/12/06/soto-11.html

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