Jerry King, general manager for DataDirect's XML products told OpenEnterpriseTrends.com"

"Developers and architects are asking us two questions,” (1) How can I get my relational data into XML?; and (2) How can I take the data access and transformation routines I am building, and my artifacts, and wrap them up into a program The growing interest is coming as more architects and developers understand the integration power of XML. "Last year ran a dev survey that showed told us less half of our customers had even touched XQuery, let alone used it for anything important [in their companies]," King told OET "But, since then, the XQuery section of our site has gone from the least traveled area to consistently rank in the number 2 or 3 position. In addition, we've done a more recent survey and more than half of [our customers] said they were actively using XQuery, and a significant portion of those said they were doing something meaningful with it. The numbers have literally inverted."

According to Joe McKendrick, the XQuery steamroller is...well...on full steam. Bottom line: we're here, we're XQueried, get used to it...

Larry Kim, Product manager of XML Products Group at DataDirect Technologies shared the results of a survey the company just commissioned on the long-anticipated XQuery standard. XQuery promises to do for XML data what SQL did for relational data — that is, make it possible to write a standardized query that will pull the right data out of any database, regardless of vendor or format.

The survey of 550 XML developers finds that 52% already started working with XQuery in the last 12 months and another 33% have plans to start using XQuery this year.

It seems that any developer worth salt is going to have to jump onto this bandwagon. All looks promising!

[Hat tip: Joe McKendrick, Waiting to XQuery, ZDNET]

"Like it or not, the SQL standard is in its twilight years, with XQuery poised to overtake it in terms of major new applications by 2010."

Oracle's Jim Melton, co-lead of XQJ, the XQuery API for Java

Stylus Scoop Editor Ivan Pedruzzi was privileged to chat with Dr. Daniela Florescu, Editor of the W3C XQuery Specificationabout where XQuery is today, and where it's heading.

Catch the interview here.