C++ Software
As previously mentioned, the C++ implementation presented here is based on Microsoft's MSXML library, listed below. The code was developed and tested with MSXML version 4.0. This is the minimum version required. The code may work with later versions but has not been tested. Changes will be required to make it run with different DOM implementations.
MSXML 4.0 Microsoft XML Core Services (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads): This is required for both development and runtime. MSXML runs as a COM service.
MSXSL.EXE Command Line Transformation Utility (no version number, last updated 9/10/2001; http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads). This is required for runtime XSLT transformations from command line.
The C++ code in this book was developed under Visual C++ 6.0 and tested on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 98. (No, you don't need .NET!)
MXSML, Win32, and COM as Legacy Technologies?Incredible but true! When I conceived this project, MSXML 4.0 (with full support for the final W3C XML Schema Recommendation) was still pretty new. However, before I really got going, Microsoft came out with .NET. Not only does .NET offer a different DOM API than MSXML (though reportedly it still uses MSXML under the hood), it is a completely new and different framework. XML is only a small piece. When this happened I became a bit concerned that working with the DOM via MSXML's COM interfaces would be dealing with obsolete technology. However, on reflection I decided that it fit very well with the thrust of the book. I just didn't expect to run into legacy applications and technology in this particular area! Considering the paradigm shift that .NET imposes and the impact of migrating from Visual Studio 6.0 to Visual Studio .NET, I think there may be an audience for this book for some time to come. Bottom line: This book gives you a way to do XML from Win32 without having to migrate to .NET. |
Alternatives to MSXML?While struggling to get the COM-related stuff working and fully debugged, I began to question my decision to use MSXML instead of some other DOM implementation that worked with C++. But, given the realities of C++ applications on Win32, I still think that MSXML is the best choice for this book. Many development shops are all Microsoft and wouldn't look at APIs from any other source. MSXML is fairly mature, installs easily, and is widely considered to offer some of the best support for W3C XML Schema. However, if you are comfortable with the licensing terms of the Apache C++ Xerces implementation, you can save yourself a lot of the COM headaches by using it instead of MSXML. |