Re: Resiliency To New Data Requirements
Date: 16 Aug 2006 20:29:43 -0700
Message-ID: <1155785383.585059.168840_at_75g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>
Marshall wrote:
> dawn wrote:
> > Your definition of "database" is not the norm, it seems,
> > but I went to the cdt glossary and found this
> >
> > Database : A logically coherent collection of related
> > real-world data assembled for a specific purpose.
> >
> > I think the web fits within these definitions.
The web is a fragile incoherent distributed mass of
unrelated data with no specific purpose. So obviously it
fails on almost all counts.
>
> Again, we may stretch the definition of structure until
> it can encompass this kind of usage, but doing so is
> counterproductive and not on-topic if we are discussing
> database theory.
It probably is off-topic, however, for general usage I'm forced to partly agree with Dawn that the various *ML's do have semi-structure. I think almost anyone would understand what you meant to communicate if you said something like "plain text is unstructured, relational data is structured, and the stuff in between like HTML is semi-structured". Sure the semi-structure sucks in major ways but the word semistructured communicates the concept just fine.
- Keith -- Fraud 6