Re: Two examples of semi structured data.

From: mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org>
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2004 00:50:33 +0200
Message-ID: <4126803d$0$42417$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>

Jan Hidders wrote:

> Laconic2 wrote:
>

>>In what ways do they fail to exemplify semi-structured data?  What are
>>some features of semi structured data that are obscured rather than
>>clarified by the theme of this discussion?

>
> I don't know enough about registries to really comment but I suspect they
> are rather structured in the sense that the schema is in fact well-known.

Roughly a hash: key - value. - Wait! That is a way to store arbitrary data, it doesn't tell me a bit about the structure of the data.

> But if it is possible that different applications are allowed to add their
> own subtree without any constraints on the structure then it is probably a
> good example.

Look at it. If you don't have a windows box your neighbour has one.

> The cookies might be a good example if it is possible to
> query them for certain information without really knowing how the
> information within them is structured.
>
> The common theme is here that you would like to be able to query and
> manipulate data that although it has structure in some way this structure
> is not (or only partially) made explicit.

It is not. Not even partially - only the storage structure is.

> A nice old paper (IMO) that discusses the main issues can be found here:
>
> http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cache/papers/cs/558/http:zSzzSzwww-db.stanford.eduzSzpubzSzpaperszSzicdt97.semistructured.pdf/abiteboul97querying.pdf
Received on Fri Aug 20 2004 - 17:50:33 CDT