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XForms is a declarative way to author complex forms. The syntactic elements constitute a different vocabulary than what most HTML / XHTML authors are used to...until now with the XForms for HTML spec. This simplification, "hybrid" approach is part of the larger trend to leverage existing markup vocabularies to push higher-level (more abstract) semantics. …

...for prototyping XML programming. I am using it to quickly come up with XSL stylesheets, XQuery, XPath experiments. I am finding it very useful. Check it out stylus studio@google. I wish they supported XForms development at this moment.

[MichaelKay] is an XML wizard. His book "XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 4th edition" is fantastic - a great reference as well as a guide with incisive insights and witty remarks to boot. Thanks to AlexBleasdale for the recommendation.

A quick note to let the ether know how grateful I am for the immensely readable and fun book that [PriscillaWalmsley] wrote about XQuery. It's a classic.

Figured out how to merge sequences in XQuery. Pretty cool.

                let $h-with-ps:= $chr//H[PS/u:ID= $dhr/DuplicateId]  (:Sequence 1:)
                let $h-with-tpid:= $chr//H[mnr:TPID= $dhr/DuplicateId] (:Sequence 2:)
                for $h in ($h-with-ssnid,$h-with-tpid)  (:merge the two sequences:)

XPath provides a function- distinct-values(<nodeset>) to retrieve a set of scalar values that are unique. However, if you want to retrieve the nodes themselves whose string values are unique, you have to sweat it out a bit more (not too much).

//mnr-ptx:MNCityTownID[not(preceding::mnr-ptx:MNCityTownID = .)]

In the above code example, the XPath expression retrieves all the mnr-ptx:MNCityTownID elements whose string() values are unique.

Used the very useful Stylus Studio ( I rely on it heavily these days) to convert an excel spreadsheet to a usable xml file after saving it as a CSV (comma separated values)from Excel. It was a sweet experience.

Wanted to quickly blog about the power that I have been experiencing using a suite of XML technologies. If you have not discovered them yet, you should look them up. Quick pointers: XQuery , eXist, XForms and XPath.
If you need help, feel free to post your comment or contact me - will be glad to show some pointers.

Listening to the book Tribes by Seth Godin (voice by Seth too). First time I am trying http://audible.com to listen on my iPhone (sweet) . Nice integration with Amazon and iTunes for a smooth experience. Looking forward to the book. If I get a chance, I will document my thoughts.

Slava Pestov will be presenting the rationale and highlights of the programming language that he created : http://factorcode.org.

The location is McNeely Hall, University of Stthomas, Room # 238. http://www.stthomas.edu/campusmaps/stpaul/stpaul2D_bw.pdf is the map. The building # is 81. There is an underground parking ramp that allows visitor parking after 4pm. The presentation will be on *Tuesday, December 16th. …