Editor's Note
Old, New, Borrowed, Blue
A traditional marriage "rule" is that the wedding should feature something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. The reasoning behind this escapes us. Why blue? Why have so many successful marriages (Britney Spears comes to mind) ignored this rule entirely? Can you borrow someone's new, blue thing? How long will this analogy go? In any event, this month we have news from all four of these categories. Bear with us as we retrofit our theme to the actual content.
Something Old XML is an old friend of ours. For years we have covered XML, in the pages of MIND, MSJ, and MSDN Magazine, as it has moved from a little-used data description language to the default data format of the Internet. Along the way, we've seen its evolution. SOAP became an XML-based format for making cross-machine process calls. Web services, made possible by XML, have become an integral part of today's computing landscape. SQL Server has included native XML capabilities for several years now, and SQL Server 2005 will include even more XML functionality.
When we started to cover XML on a regular basis in The XML Files column, it was still an emerging technology. Aaron Skonnard has tracked its intricacies for years, providing a broad picture of the places where XML can be used and the APIs that help you use it. However, over the years XML has been so widely accepted as part of the basic infrastructure that it's not the most interesting part of the story anymore.
SOA or service-oriented architecture—a broad term that describes systems that are built around loosely coupled software—is the interesting part. Although the term itself can describe just about anything, we normally achieve SOA through a combination of Web services. The data itself is not coupled with the processing it receives, making the architecture of the system much more flexible. As a reliable, universal data standard, XML is an ideal data transport for service-oriented architecture.
As part of our commitment to covering topics of relevance to our readers, Aaron will be writing about SOA in our new Service Station column. Technically it's not a "new" offering; rather, it's the logical extension of his popular XML Files column. So it's new, but it's not. Updated? Spruced up? Refreshed? Slipstreamed? Well, it's one of those exciting adjectives.
Something New Don't forget to sign up for TechNet Magazine! Only a few weeks remain to reserve your copy of the exciting special security issue. If you or a loved one is an IT Professional, make sure to sign up today. You can also visit our new Web site, https://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag, or drop by our Usenet presence at microsoft.public.technet.magazine. If you just want to sign up for your free issue, you can do that too. Just surf to https://www.technetmagsubs.com or go through the TechNet Magazine Web site. You'll be glad you did.
Something Borrowed You may have heard that Microsoft will no longer be offering the Java Virtual Machine after December 2007. However, recent news stories have left some confusion as to the future of the Java language within Windows. To clear this up, this month's { End Bracket } column discusses just what you need to know about the future of this language on the Windows platform. If you have any code that uses the Java language, or you are supporting Java-language products, this is important stuff to know.
Thanks to the following Microsoft technical experts for their help with this issue: Patrick Baker, Jay Bazuzi, Kawarjit Bedi, Josh Benaloh, Shawn Burke, Pablo Castro, HongMei Ge, Matthew Gibbs, David Guyer, Chris Hollander, Anson Horton, Vishal Kalra, Jonathan Keljo, Ronald Laeremans, Gerrard Lindsay, Ivan Medvedev, Vick Mukherjee, Adam Nathan, Jim Newkirk, Greg Sundberg, Matt Tavis, Dave Templin, Dan Vallejo, Ravinder Vappula, and Joel West.
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