On Mon, 26 Feb 2001, Colin Faber wrote:
> Don't forget, Microsoft and Oracle are behind it so it _MUST_ be the
> greatest thing to come along since sliced bread. You folks need to keep
> in mind that with the microsoft system the XML layer IS NOT part of the
> database it self but an additional application which talks to the
> database via 'ODBC' so once again we have a situation where XML IS NOT
> and SHOULD NOT be part of the RDBMS, BUT is rather a middleware
> application to support users whom wish to use the XML system.
>
I wasn't going to get into this discussion, but I feel compelled by the
fact THAT IT'S STILL GOING ON. :(p
Mysql is an RDBMS. RDBMS's have certain nice properties. You can make
cartesian products of different data sets and search across them using a
somewhat standardized query language, you can implement client
applications which request data from a centralized server, stuff like
that. XML is a formal set of rules for adding meta-data tags to character
data. The reason not to "add XML support to Mysql" is THAT THERE IS NO
CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE 2 CONCEPTS! A relational database is one thing,
a set of valid XML documents is something completely different.
Sure, you can store XML documents in a database (or you can use semantic
tags to parse documents into fields for insertion into a table), or you
can wrap XML tags around the data from each field you're retrieving from a
database, but beyond this, I fail to see any connection between these 2
concepts beyond a lot of marketing blab which is completely meaningless.
The fact that Microsoft and Oracle are behind it should be a tip off to
put earplugs firmly in place in order to avoid wasting a lot of time
drowning in hype.
***********************************************************************
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The survey, conducted Jan. 5-15 and based on answers from 516
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Seventeen percent of male participants planned to buy their vehicle
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***********************************************************************
_ Patrick Goetz
_| ~-. Dept. of Mathematics
\, *_} The University of Texas at Austin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
\( Austin, Texas 78712-1084 Phone: (512) 232-2746
http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/pgoetz
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