Re: Two examples of semi structured data.

From: mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org>
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 00:38:26 +0200
Message-ID: <41267d66$0$14941$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>

Bernard Peek wrote:

> Laconic2 writes
>

>> I still know very little about either one.  I'm not seeking a lot of
>> technical detail in this discussion, although links to good technical
>> websites would be helpful.    What I want to do is use them as 
>> examples of
>> semi structured data.

>
> I'm not sure about cookies but to my mind registry keys are highly
> structured. What makes you think that they are only semi-structured?

Seems obvious, no? After all it is a hierarchical data-store.

Yet, if you take a look at what is stored inthere (just start regedit on some windows box), you will see that those data have structure beyond the hierarchy imposed by the registry: both within a value (intra-structure) and structures using multiple keys (only detectible if you compare registry images before and after a registry change, extra-structure. In other words: the structure of the registry does *not* give you the structure of the data at all.

So wether they are structured, unstructured or semi-structured - no one can tell. Received on Fri Aug 20 2004 - 17:38:26 CDT