Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought you could easily wrap binary within an xml document? Is this not possible due to encoding issues?
Kevin -----Original Message----- From: Fernando Padilla [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 2:37 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Binary Files On Wed, 26 Jun 2002, Kimbro Staken wrote: > Hey Fernando, > > I apologize if my message came across as a flame. That definitely was not > my intention. I was simply in a hurry and foolishly typed a message that I > readily admit was extremely poorly worded. What it should have said is > more like this. > > In the very early days of dbXML when it was just Tom and myself working on > the software, and virtually no one using it, we made a decision to not > expose binary content through the APIs. This decision was made to keep the > software simple and focused exclusively on the XML domain. Now that the > project has grown and other people are involved, it may be time to > reconsider this decision. Before making that decision however, I feel > that the use cases should be examined and that we should be sure there is > real value beyond just using the file system. The XML:DB API already > defines a BinaryResource type and as Tom mentioned the core also already > supports binary. So implementation should be relatively simple should we > decide to do so now. > > After I read my original message on the list I had a feeling it would be > taken the wrong way. I'll try to remember to not post when I'm in a hurry. > :-) No, your email wasn't flaming.. just my response :):) I didn't take any offense to your message tone or content, just your conclusion :):):) It's just that I can not see anyway to say that BinaryResources are not a "real value"... I can see now that your choice was more motivated by what areas to devote development/brain time onto. But if we expect Xindice to be used for any of my company's projects ( which I really really want to do ), then it HAS to support binary content. I just don't see any reason why a FileSystem would ever be better than Xindice (and in some instances a filesystem isn't an option). Unless of course there are technical reasons why Xindice can not support Binary files, which Tom said no. Let me try to boil this discussion down: 1) if Xindice supported BinaryResources, would it make it unsable to you? how so? 2) if Xindice didn't support BinaryResources, would it make it unsable to you? why? 3) if Xindice supported BinaryResources, would it dilute the technical architecture, vision or design? how and why? Are there any other insightful questions to ask? After answering these questions for yourself, what decision would you come up with??
