LOI: XQuery Update Facility, LINQ

I have been reasonably quiet over the past month, however this is probably more a testament to how busy have been since arriving back from Christmas 2005 celebrations. In the interests of keeping my site current, I'm starting a series of postings that I'd like to call LOI's, or links of interest.

First on today's list is a posting from DataDirect's XQuery guru Jonathan Robie who announces the first Working Draft of the XQuery Update Facility. Those who remember how SQL updates evolved will be pleased to see this necessary evolution of the language being driven by the standard, as opposed to more ugly proprietary language extensions. Next up, an article from SQL Server magazine (subscription required) which gives an insight to the next generation of the .NET Framework and specifically the LINQ language extension under consideration: "LINQ to the Future" - provides an glimpse at the future of a tightly coupled query facility in the C# and VB languages. MSDN has already posted preview and sample code samples.

And lastly, Salesforce.com launched AppExchange recently. I have read various reports that seemed to position this as the next business orientated platform (or the 'Business Web' as they like to put it) that could, if successful supplant .NET or Java from their current market share positions. I think that's unlikely, but then again it might just elevate a new breed of developers that were previously unaccounted for into Salesforce's ever growing sphere of influence.