Verity is the pseudonym of a programmer based in the UK. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Isn't it amazing to think that, from our current vantage point of <note to editor: insert publication date here>, it was just five years ago, we were using obsolete technology. The technology of five years ago, through warm glowing pleasant reassuring orange light of nostalgia, was very advanced for its time in <note to editor: insert publication date minus five years here>; it nonetheless suffered from one or two disadvantages, letting a little hint of doubt creep in. To explain.
In those days, jocular-yet-wistful smile, some of us weren't using Windows but a little-known operating system he said carefully being nonspecific, was it UNIX '98 or UNIX NT? In those days, I was a happy-go-lucky kind of fellow, another frank charming little grin, and even though I hadn't Seen The Light, I still enjoyed my programming while all the time, holds up hands helplessly, I was using such tools that I wouldn't use today, let's just leave it at that without even going there. Later on, I found out how things were really supposed to be, exclamation point or maybe two for safety!!
Yet, slight frown indicating getting to a more serious issue, once I had made the jump to the Windows platform, and began to enjoy all the many benefits that such a jump intrinsically implies, I found something missing. Something insignificant (making fist around teeny tiny insignificant thing) yet, looking straight to camera with sincere grey eyes, something professional users wouldn't want to be without. And, leaning forward to emphasise that a minicrisis is upon us, something that the other operating system had always had. Pause while the shockwave of this dramatic assertion crashes down over readership. The truth is, takes big breath, the other operating system had something that the obsolete technology of five years ago didn't have, the audience is reeling under the strain. Yes, it's true.
That's why, letting breath out in shuddering exhalation after the crisis of admission but now finished creating a need for the time being so lets make the preliminary pitch, that's why I was so excited by the announcement from Redmond of XML Always-New Technology Plus.NET (XANT+.NET for short). Does XANT+.NET replace the obsolete technology of five years rhetorical question mark? Childish glee as of a gleeful child: You betcha! And does it have the missing thing that the other operating system had? Raise eyebrows to signal humorous retort coming up with humane touch to show that I am a real person, too, does my cat Cutey like walking on my keyboard? qwasfgbv89oi[]#' Why, explaining to the 20% of readership who market research suggests cannot get even this sort of joke unaided but nonetheless may play a serious part in software-tool specification or purchasing decisions, why there goes Cutey my cat now walking on the keyboard and making it appear that I am typing gibberish. Which of course, I am not, that bit is for the not-so-sharp 20%, too.
But seriously, rather alarmed at how far from the point that little diversionette seems to have taken us, with XANT+.NET, you know that Windows finally has the key ingredient for first class out-of-the box frontline back-room solution that it, and YOU—should I bold that YOU as well as capitalise it do YOU think or would that be just a little bit over the top—have always deserved. You may not have noticed it was a key ingredient in the past, but the past is a foreign country through which, as the poet or the motoring organisation once said, we shall not travel through again. That's because we are marching forward into the future, the XML .NET distributed web services synchronisation interoperability future, sincere understanding smile to rally the troops.
But, slightly queasy after such an overtly marketing type pitch and feeling the need to ground the article in the refreshing naturally sparkling volcanic mineral water of some technicalities, how does it actually work? Take a look at Figure 1. There you see that I have created, using either C# or VB.NET.ASP.NET I forget, a trivial application. This application, although trivial and quickly produced, you'll notice nonetheless takes advantage of the feature previously only available elsewhere and, more importantly, affords me an opportunity to use the word "cool" for the first time, misspelling it to prove that I am truly a hacker's hacker and certainly not reminding anybody at all of an embarrassing uncle on the dance floor: Dig that kewl XML! In just 30 lines! Whew!
Lets get to some details, stern gruff voice we are all grown ups around here, and to achieve this effect we need to go to Figure 2 long sprawling multipage piece of code that includes the word "highlights" in its opening comment. To simplify the presentation and clarify the structure, head tilted to one side and premelted butter wouldn't melt in the mouth look, I have left out the error-handling but this is trivially reintroduced, oh yes indeedy slightly hurt expression in awe of possibility that anybody could think of dreaming of wondering otherwise. Thanks to, time to check the keywords again, think of it like a radio station giving out its frequency, XANT+.NET the XML interoperability engine of the .NET paradigm shift, everything is, if not easy, no harder than it should be to a person of our kind of intelligence, teensy little touch of flattery by association never did anybody any harm.
In the end, beloved old patrician summing up technical intercourse between two intellectual heavyweights/equals—albeit admitting that the writer is the slightly more experienced of the two—it comes to this. It is in engineering as it is in real life, notice qualifying adjective there makes distinction with artificial life that you might otherwise have thought of. For, drops voice deep in preparation of delivering final homily, let us never forget the wise words of the motoring organisation or poet: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a simple application in possession of a stable feature set, must be in want of an upgrade. Smiles one last time, bows, exits.
DDJ
