DonXML Blog

I just ran across this blog entry from Richard Tallent’s Randomize Blog about his predications on the future of the browser.  I agree with a lot of his predictions, just not so sure about his ideas on SVG and XHTML.  He seems to think that we don’t need to re-invent to wheel.  I’m starting to think that although we may not need to re-invent the wheel, we sure need to swap our old wooden wheel for a nice new one made of rubber and steel.

Although there are lots and lots to like about WordML, my one big problem with it is when it comes to Object Linking and Embedding Documents (aka Ole Documents, or formerly compound documents).  Since in Office 2K3 beta 2 both Word and Excel can be saved as pure XML, I assumed (and you know what happens when you do that) that if you embedded an Excel Spreadsheet within a Word Document, and then tried to save it as XML you would get a multi-namespace document that had the Excel XML embedded within the WordML.  Well I finally got around to testing it out, and to my dismay, the Excel document is not XML but a binary stream within the WordML document.  It is embedded within a docOleData element, which is where I would have expected the XML to go.  Hopefully this will be fixed by the RTM release, but I don’t hold out hope.  The reason, when I try to do the opposite, a Word Document within Excel, and save it as XML, you get a warning that  Excel “Cannot export XML data. The XML maps in this workbook are not exportable.”.

Chris Sells just mentioned that the PDC is now open for registeration.

Chris mentions that the Applied XML DevCon Message Board on GDN has been heating up.  I don’t know if I’d call it heating up, but if you are going to the conference, stop by the board and say hi.  There has been some discussion about doing something Wed. night, so you may want to chime in with your ideas.  I’ll be staying Friday night, too, so if anyone has ideas for Friday, let the group know.

I don’t know how we all missed this announcement from Chris Sells, but it seems that at least some of the Whidbey’s XML Tools will be previewed at the Applied XML DevCon.  Rumor has it that there is only a couple seats left, but if Chris gets enough requests he might move the conference to a bigger room.

Don Box pointed out a site by Ken Sall that has a map of all major XML technical specifications.  DB then goes on to say  “XML in its entirety had become more complex than COM ever was.”, and then goes on to describe his ruff XML “kernel”.  The problem I have with Ken Sall’s map is that it is very misleading, and can be used to portray XML as being very complex and hard to learn.  The map includes, not just the core XML specs, but all other specs built on top of it, plus a bunch of specs that are not XML, but are used by specs based on XML.  In the end, it is just a lot of FUD.  If I were to do an equivalent map of the COM interfaces and include every major component built on COM, it would say the say thing that the XML map does, that XML (and COM) is everywhere.

With most folks on weblogs.asp.net now skinning their blogs using CSS, I finally added mine to the list, plus updated the script to include a separate CSS for printing.  This way, if by chance someone actually wants to print a blog, they don’t have to get all the extra navigation elements too.  Here’s the new script:

I know I haven’t posted a blog entry in a couple days, and nothing really cool since the Extending Enums stuff, but I’m still here.  I’m pretty busy ith work and family life, and to quite honest, I haven’t thought of anything cool to blog about.  Here’s a couple of the things I am working on: