Norway, Ireland, and Redmond

Microsoft has a hand in everything, it seems. One of their current ongoing projects is SQL Server Modeling, formerly known as Oslo. (If you're interested, it has been released as a Community Technology Preview.) According to Douglas Purdy, this consists of:

• M, a language for defining queries, schemas, etc. (like MySQL);
• Quadrant, a tool for interacting with SQL databases (like Access); and
  
• Repository, the back-end that communicates between applications and systems and stores data (SQL Server).

It was originally conceived as a sort of broad cross-platform modeling solution. M is open-source, but MS's implementation ties it to SQL Server. (Parts of the original Oslo project were split off into Dublin, .NET Services, and WF/WCF 4.0, while the modeling bits listed above stayed with Oslo.)

M has three specifications: T-SQL (Transact-Structured Query Language, Microsoft's proprietary extensions to SQL), grammar (originally called MGrammar), and EDMX (an XML file defining an Entity Data Model) (source). M is a domain-specific language (DSL). Its purpose, according to Microsoft, is to make it easier for users to interact with the database.

It's kind of difficult, as someone who has never heard of SQL Server Modeling before this week, to determine what, precisely, is its purpose. On first glance, it appears to be a set of data manipulation tools. However, Microsoft's aim seems to be more all-encompassing than that. It doesn't help that their aim has changed drastically in the three years they've been working on it. Time will tell if it catches on, and in what capacity.

Quote of the Day:
Beckman: Your country is calling you, Mr. Bartowski.
Chuck: Uh, well, then I think my country might have the wrong number.
--Chuck, "Chuck Versus the Ring"