Re: Nonproprietary file format for storing data in a relational database

Clinging to sanity, Bernard Peek <bap_at_shrdlu.com> mumbled into her beard:
> In message <7bb4f21d.0410160829.70ced852_at_posting.google.com>, Jesper
> Sahner <jespersahner_at_hotmail.com> writes
>>Hi!
>>
>>Usually when you store large amounts of data in a relational database
>>you use e.g. a DB2-, SAS- or maybe Access-file format.
>>
>>Is there a nonproprietary file format for storing data in a relational
>>database? - and which is the most accepted? - and does XML play a
>>role?
>
> There are lots of nonproprietary file formats. The dBase file format
> has been reverse-engineered and lots of applications use it. The CSV
> text file isn't proprietary and I have seen variants of it used for
> storing data from several entities. XML is the latest in a long line
> of non-proprietary formats.

XML sure is proprietary, much as was the Vulcan file format for what eventually got named dBase.

Vis-a-vis XML:

1. The standard is the property of the W3 Consortium, and therefore is necessarily proprietary.

    If you read the standard, you will discover that it is...

    "Copyright © 2004 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights     Reserved. W3C liability, trademark, document use and software     licensing rules apply."

2. The DTDs and schemas without which XML is useless are often

    proprietary, and perhaps even not documented.

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