Microsoft will have its hands full trying to forge a technology that makes it easier to build applications using the varied data representations based on object, relational and XML models. But the company is forging ahead anyway, with its Comega project.Still a research endeavor, the effort has elicited some interesting feedback.“It’s going to change a lot before it will have promise but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Sahil Malik, a .Net consultant at the National Cancer Institute who has fiddled with Comega. He described previous attempts at tackling the data model gap as “lame.” Product plans, if any, have yet to be determined for Comega. But if Microsoft is able to produce a mature, working technology, the company’s .Net development platform would get a major shot in the arm at a time when some in the Java community are already questioning the strength of Java vs. Microsoft’s development technology.Things could get interesting. Technology Industry