Is XSL-T powerful enough? I haven't really seriously used it for things like this since it was just plain ol' XSL, but it seemed like it was extremely limited in what it could do. Come right down to it, why do "ASP.net-like" instead of just ASP.net? [The .NET Guy: Rants]

Sure it is. You can import and execute any .NET code you wanted to via extension objects. You also have the ability to write script right in your transform via the <msxsl:script> element. I'll try to dummy up an example template and transform this weekend to see if I can illustrate exactly what I'm thinking of. When you actually see it in action it might make more sense or perhaps I'll have an "a-ha experience" and realize what I was thinking of won't exactly work. Either way, it's progress. ;)

I had totally forgotten about this post, but Eric Gunnerson just pointed it out on the DOTNET list. It's a post from Brian Harry titled "Resource Management". It was posted to the list back in the day (Oct. 2000) and contains a in-depth look at Microsoft's research at getting deterministic finalization to work in the CLR.

I was curious about Microsoft framework assembly update policies, so I asked this question on the DOTNET-CLR list:

"Something I've been wondering with respect to the framework is whether or not individual assemblies will be updated irrespective of other assemblies (assuming there are no dependencies on other external changes of course) or will all assembly updates be synchronized and released as a full framework update? Obviously with the excellent versioning policies of .NET the former is entirely possible."

and got a response from Brian Harry:

"It will depend on the scope of things, in general. It's harder to say what we will do that what we are doing. For now, when we do QFE's, SPs and the like, we only update the affected assemblies. When we do major releases, we update everything together. Will we ever release a single assembly with major new feature work in it? I don't know. Capability of our versioning system is only one component of the decision. Our internal test and process cost is actually our biggest consideration."

If you're interested in any other potential follow-ups, you can follow the thread here.

Wanted: A Weblog Alert Service. Here's a request to the weblog development community. [Scott Loftesness] Hmmm, I seem to already have 95% of the bits needed for this, time for some tinkering ..... [Simon Fell]

Very interesting.

The following is a response, from Brad Wilson, to a thread about versioning on the DOTNET-CLR list:

"I've lived with DLL hell for a long time, and the .NET solution is the best of both worlds, IMO. Private assemblies are allowed and encouraged, and for those things that must or should be shared, signing, versioning, etc. makes it so much better than anything that's come before."

Amen to that.

The latest installment in the .NET Show was put up last night. The focus of this episode is Object Role Modeling. Here's a quick definition of ORM for those who aren't already familiar with it:

Object Role Modeling (ORM) is a powerful method for designing and querying database models at the conceptual level, where the application is described in terms easily understood by non-technical users. In practice, ORM data models often capture more business rules, and are easier to validate and evolve than data models in other approaches.