I was deeply disappointed to discover, that .NET framework 2.0 didn't contain XQuery implementation. Apparently, it was included in one of the earlier beta releases, but then was dropped by Microsoft in favour of the forthcoming LINQ project - some sort of blend between C# and Oracle's Pro*C (probably much prettier than the latter).

I can't say I buy their explanation on why it was done or their proposition to use XSLT as an alternative. Nonetheless, here I am, wishing to use XQuery in C# and .NET in general and without an implementation from Redmond.

An alternative is proposed by the Saxon project. While it is a Java implementation of XPath 2.0, XSLT, XQuery and some other XML goodies, it also contains now a .NET distribution of the same. I want to try it and to see whether it is useful in a real life project.