Leigh Dodds
Leigh Dodds is an application developer and designer specialising in Java, XML, and database design. He develops XML based electronic document delivery systems for ingenta, and is based in Bath, UK.
Leigh is an xmlhack contributing editor and maintains Eclectic, a weblog for the XML-DEV mailing list.
Articles by this author:
Introducing SPARQL: Querying the Semantic WebLeigh Dodds presents the first of a multipart tutorial on SPARQL, a query language for RDF and the Semantic Web, which may also play a role in Web 2.0 apps and services. [Nov. 16, 2005]
An Introduction to FOAF
Friend-of-a-friend, FOAF, is an RDF vocabulary for machine-readable homepages. It enables the expression of decentralized social networks akin to the centralized ones seen in Friendster and Orkut. Leigh Dodds provides an introduction to FOAF and its use. [Feb. 4, 2004]
DSDL Examined
In Leigh Dodds' last XML-Deviant column, he examines the ISO's DSDL project and the XML development community's reaction to it. [Jun. 26, 2002]
The IETF, Best Practices and XML Schemas
In this week's XML-Deviant column, Leigh Dodds reports on the IETF's efforts to define best practices for the use of XML, which has fanned the flames of debate about schema languages. [Jun. 12, 2002]
XML Europe 2002 Coverage
Leigh Dodds is in Barcelona this week, busy munching tapas and attending XML Europe 2002. This week's column features up-to-the-minute conference coverage. [May. 22, 2002]
REST Roundup
This week's XML-Deviant surveys the multifaceted debates about the REST web application architecture. [May. 8, 2002]
When to Use Get?
The XML-Deviant examines the recent debate surrounding the TAG's draft statement on the proper use of GET. [Apr. 24, 2002]
XML Namespaces 1.1
This week's Deviant examines the Namespaces 1.1 Working Draft, as well as its goals and likely impact on XML processors and development practices. [Apr. 10, 2002]
W3C XML Schema Needs You
In this week's Deviant column the issue of interoperability and specification conformance of XML Schema processors is discussed. [Mar. 27, 2002]
Processing Model Considered Essential
This week's XML-Deviant uncovers an issue underlying many debates about XML: the lack of a formal XML processing model. [Mar. 13, 2002]
In a Lather About Security
This week's XML-Deviant column recounts a recent discussion about the security of SOAP, RPC, and REST. [Feb. 27, 2002]
Message Patterns and Interoperability The XML-Deviant reports on the recent discussions about kinds of messaging patterns, as well as industry efforts to certify web services interoperability. [Feb. 13, 2002]
Document Associations
The Deviant column examines the relation of namespaces and document types, as well as multi-typed documents, in the context of XML processing models. [Jan. 30, 2002]
Fat Protocols
Leigh Dodds looks at recent discussions about the efficiency of XML-based distributed application frameworks. [Jan. 16, 2002]
XQuery Questioned
The XML-Deviant asks whether the XQuery specification should be refactored, and whether it should be released without specifying significant parts of the expected feature set? [Jan. 2, 2002]
Versioning Problems
The publication of the first draft of XML 1.1 is the cause of much dissent in the XML community. [Dec. 19, 2001]
Far from Patchy Progress
Leigh Dodds reviews the recent history of the Apache XML project, its the latest SOAP developments, and concludes that Apache XML has matured considerably. [Dec. 5, 2001]
Wrap Your App
Leigh Dodds reports on recent community conversations about solving the XML application packaging problem. [Nov. 21, 2001]
Identity Crisis
Leigh Dodds describes the recent XML developer community's debate about the best way to fix XML's ID attribute problem. [Nov. 7, 2001]
XML and Databases? Follow Your Nose
Leigh Dodds explores the sometimes pungent, often sweet world of XML-database integration requirement smells. [Oct. 24, 2001]
Being Too Generous
Leigh Dodds reports on the community's so far successful efforts to convince Microsoft to fix XML conformance bugs in IE6. [Sep. 19, 2001]
Dividing Factors
Leigh Dodds searches the fault lines of the XML development community and finds that a desire for technological diversity is the new epicenter. [Sep. 5, 2001]
A Path to Enlightenment
Leigh Dodds takes us for stroll down the path of XML complexity, seeking the enlightenment of simplicity. [Aug. 29, 2001]
Architectural Style
Leigh Dodds reviews a debate about the usefulness of XSLT, concluding that if used as intended, XSLT is one of the successful XML technologies. [Aug. 15, 2001]
Opening Old Wounds
Leigh Dodds discusses the interpretation of namespaces and XML Schema and, in the process, highlights an important flaw in the W3C's specification process. [Aug. 8, 2001]
Doing it Simpler
Dodds recaps the history of SML-DEV's efforts to simplify XML, including Common XML, MinML, and YAML. He then examines where SML-DEV may be going next. [Aug. 1, 2001]
The RDF Calendar Task Force
Dodds describes the goals and methodology of the RDF Calendar Task Force, a practical Semantic Web development effort. [Jul. 25, 2001]
The Collected Works of SAX
Dodds reports on XML-DEV's latest efforts to enhance the SAX API and to build a standard library of SAX tools. [Jul. 18, 2001]
Sunshine and Blueberries
Leigh Dodds explores the issues behind the W3C's newly-forming Technical Architecture Group, as well as giving an update on XML Blueberry. [Jul. 11, 2001]
Against the Grain
XML developers are talking about a perennial question: how can XML and database technologies be integrated appropriately? [Jul. 5, 2001]
Blueberry Jam
A proposed revision of XML to accommodate new Unicode characters is becoming a sticky point of debate in the XML developer world. [Jun. 27, 2001]
Rapid Resolution
A recent debate about supporting OASIS catalogs in XML shows that strong differences of opinion still exist on interpretation of the XML 1.0 specification itself. [Jun. 20, 2001]
What You See Isn't What We Want
Getting back to basics, we take a look at the best way of getting your documents marked up in XML. [Jun. 13, 2001]
Time for Consolidation
Is XML changing the way applications are being designed? If so, what tools should you use to model these applications? [Jun. 6, 2001]
Parsing the Atom
Not every piece of data the XML programmer has to deal with comes neatly packaged in angle brackets. XML developers have been examining how W3C XML Schema could help out. [Apr. 25, 2001]
Intuition and Binary XML
Binary encodings for XML is a well-worn topicon XML-DEV, yet last week's revisiting of the debate introduced some interesting new evidence. [Apr. 18, 2001]
XP Meets XML
The XML-Deviant has been watching advocates of the latest trend in software development, Extreme Programming, get to grips with XML. At least they have acronyms in common. [Apr. 4, 2001]
Schemas by Example
There has been a lot of activity in the area of XML schema languages recently: with several key W3C publications and another community proposed schema language. [Mar. 28, 2001]
Extensions to XSLT
Members of the XSL mailing list have started a commnunity-based project to standardize extensions for XSLT. [Mar. 14, 2001]
Toward an XPath API
Since XSLT and XPointer rely on XPath, developers are asking whether an XPath API should be created. [Mar. 7, 2001]
Does XML Query Reinvent the Wheel?
XML developers contend that the overlap between XML Query and XSLT is so great that they aren't separate languages at all. [Feb. 28, 2001]
Answering the Namespace Riddle
Dodds introduces RDDL, the Resource Directory Description Language, the result of a recent project conducted by the XML developer community to make XML namespaces easier to use. [Feb. 28, 2001]
Time to Refactor XML?
The growing interdependency between XML specifications is causing concern among XML developers -- is this just a case of sensible reuse, or are we creating a dangerously tangled web of standards? [Feb. 21, 2001]
XSLT Extensions Revisited
The first Working Draft of XSLT 1.1, though attempting to address the portability of stylesheets that use extension functions, has failed to please everyone in the XSLT developer community. [Feb. 14, 2001]
Schemarama
For the past two weeks XML-DEV has seen fascinating exchanges between three inventors of alternative XML schema proposals. [Feb. 7, 2001]
Dictionaries and Datagrams
XML developers have been reexamining the textual encoding of XML, addressing concerns of verbosity and multilingual elements. [Jan. 24, 2001]
XPointer and the Patent
Does a Sun patent threaten the future of hypertext on the web, or are XML developers getting unnecessarily alarmed by the licensing terms on the XPointer spec? The XML-Deviant reports. [Jan. 17, 2001]
Old Ghosts: XML Namespaces
The XML Namespaces ghost returned to haunt the XML community this Christmas. However, developers on XML-DEV fought back with a new proposal to bring predictability to the use of URIs as namespace identifiers. [Jan. 10, 2001]
The 12 Days of XML Christmas
A light-hearted review of XML developer community 2000 as seen through the watchful eye of the XML-Deviant. [Dec. 27, 2000]
Converging Protocols Jon Bosak's comments at XML 2000 about the respective roles of ebXML and SOAP have sparked discussion on convergence between ebXML's transport, routing and packaging layer and the W3C's XML Protocol Activity. [Dec. 20, 2000]
