[xquery-talk] Questions about SQL Server 2005 and XML

[Jonathan Robie]

Michael Rys wrote:

>Frank I certainly share some of your frustration. But where are the
>contributions of RainingData to getting XQuery done quicker?
>  
>

I'm not sure that adding more designers or more active reviewers would 
help us get XQuery done faster. In the last few years, one of the things 
that really slowed us down was getting over 1200 public comments on the 
first Last Call documents from companies actively involved in XQuery, 
and most of these comments were from companies who had at least one 
XQuery editor. To process these comments, we had to get agreement among 
all the people already on the committee. And that took a lot of time! 
Increasing the number of comments received or the number of companies 
that need to agree on the solution would not make it faster. Making sure 
that we do our own reviews earlier in the cycle would.

And I think we *are* learning. In the second Last Call, we worked hard 
to make sure that the companies that produced the specifications did 
more thorough internal review before we released to the public. And 
we're certainly receiving orders of magnitude fewer comments. I suspect 
there are other things we could do to speed it up, too. Regardless, I 
think we who are most active in the Working Group are the ones 
responsible for getting this done, and optimizing the process we use to 
create our specs. And I think the chairs are aware of this, and are 
working hard to get and keep things moving.

The good news is that XQuery is now finally a Candidate Recommendation, 
and the CR period is going very well. I'm guessing we'll have a final 
Recommendation this year, and it's not going to change much from what we 
currently have. It might be fair to say that the spec *is* finished, and 
is going through the review process that the W3C uses. Changes will be 
made only where flaws are discovered.

Jonathan

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