I’ve been heads down coding for a couple weeks now (I’m sure you’ve noticed the lack of decent content), but I’ve got to take the time to congratulate my fellow MS MVP-XML’ers.
Oleg and
kzu have
announced that a license was signed by MS for distribution rights to the open source
Mvp.Xml library. Great job guys! The current version of the library contains a bunch of tools that can be used to enhance System.Xml, plus support for XInclude and XPointer. We (the XML and XML Web Service MVPs) have worked very hard on improving the communications between Microsoft and the developers who use System.Xml. Some other areas within Microsoft have are use to this type of synergy with the people that use their product (like the ASP.Net folks), but since System.Xml isn’t a product, and is part of the core framework, the WebData team (aka the folks that support System.Xml) haven’t had that luxury. Another unique aspect to the WebData team is that a lot of their work includes implementing specifications from various standards organizations, and determining which specs warrant implementation by Microsoft (and when). IE is another team within MS that has this issue, but they have a product, which the WebData folks do not. Not all specs are needed by the majority of developers (what I call boutique specs) or have been around long enough to be stable (aka cutting edge specs), or a combination of the 2. What us Mvp Xml’ers have been trying to do is to work with the WebData team, and help give them feedback on what is really going on out in the enterprise. Since we know that there are limited resources within any organization, specs (or enhancements) that might not get implemented by MS (for whatever reason), but for which we see a need, we will try to implement in this library.