MOSS: Quote of the day

Ok - so actually it was the quote of the day on March 19, but...

'The unfortunate reality is that working directly with XML still requires a significant paradigm shift in the way most developers think.  With all the buzz about improving the SharePoint "developer experience", I keep thinking there must be a better way.'

John F. Holiday in SharePoint Reflection - Working with Content Types

Mr. Holiday then goes on to propose a very interesting Attribute and reflection based framework with the following lofty goals (emphasis mine):

1. 'We want to make it easier to declare content types in code.
2. 'We want to eliminate the need to work directly in CAML or XML.
3. 'We want to use the same coding idioms we are used to when working with other code.
4. 'We want to make it easier to write custom event receivers for our content types.
5. 'We want to make it easier to associate sub-components like document templates and XML documents with our content types.
6. 'We want to be able to build libraries of reusable components that can be leveraged across multiple projects easily.
7. 'We want to enable DRM for content type components at the assembly level so that developers can protect their intellectual property.'

He then shows how to use this framework for creating Content Types and associated Site Columns.  VERY elegant.  Definitely worth a read (or watch the screencast).

I wish MS would go in this direction for SharePoint v.Next...