Jonathan Robie

XML Activities and Publications

I am the XML Program Manager at DataDirect Technologies, where we are developing DataDirect XQuery™, an XQuery implementation that installs like a JDBC driver and can query XML or XML views of relational databases.

In previous lives, I have been on the architectural team for XML databases or repositories at three different companies - Software AG, Texcel Research, and POET Software. Since 1996, I have been a regular speaker at SGML and XML conferences.

Here are some of my current activities and publications:

XML Query Languages

I am a member of the W3C XML Query Language Working Group, a group formed by the W3C to design a query language for XML. I am an editor or author of each of the following documents.

XQuery, the W3C XML Query Language.
W3C XML Query Requirements
W3C XML Query Use Cases
W3C XML Query Data Model (versions up to February 15th, 2001). Jonathan Marsh has now taken my position as editor on this document.
Quilt, a Query Language for XML - a query language designed together with Don Chamberlin (one of the authors of SQL) and Daniela Florescu (one of the authors of XML-QL). This language was a precursor of XQuery.
XML Query Language (XQL), a query language designed primarily by Joe Lapp and me, and a precursor of XPath.

Schema Languages and Extensibility

Member of the W3C XML Schema Language Working Group, a group formed by the W3C to design a schema language for XML. I am an author or editor of the following documents:

Schema Adjunct Framework - a framework for enhancing a schema with domain-specific metadata, and accessing this metadata at run-time when processing schemas or instances. This can also be thought of as a way to add semantics to schema languages.
XML Schema: Formal Description - a formal model of W3C XML Schema, useful for query algebras, data dictionaries, and other systems which need such an abstraction.

Document Object Model (DOM)

The Document Object Model is a programming API for XML and HTML. Time pressure forced me to leave the Document Object Model Working Group in 1999. I was an editor for DOM Level 1 and DOM Level 2, working on the following documents: