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

Christopher Browne wrote:

> 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.
> --
> If this was helpful, <http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=cbbrowne> rate me
> http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms.html
> "Sponges grow in the ocean. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would
> be if that didn't happen." -- Steven Wright

Nah, that's bullshit.

Warm regards,

Ross F. Received on Sun Oct 17 2004 - 08:41:20 CEST