The interview is published by XML development tools and components provider Stylus Studio (http://www.stylusstudio.com) and vividly conveys Robie's insight on the benefits, beliefs and the future of XQuery.

The easiest way to actually build real-world XQuery applications, according to Robie, is with Stylus Studio 2006 XML Enterprise Edition, with full support for XQuery Editing, XQuery Mapping, XQuery Debugging, XQuery Profiling, and more.

Certainly he is in a position to know: he's been actively involved with the XML Query Working Group since day one, and has been an editor since the first documents were published by the W3C.

Robie is the Program Manager for DataDirect XQuery, a high-performance, embeddable Java component that enables XQuery access to all the major relational databases that first shipped in September 2005.

Currently he's helping the XML Query WG to create an XQuery Update Facility.