Re: XML storing and management

On 27 sep, 19:07, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Jan Hidders wrote:
> > On 27 sep, 16:27, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> >>Jan Hidders wrote:
>
> >>>On 27 sep, 02:19, JOG <j..._at_cs.nott.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> >>>>Ok, so why is it exactly cdt, despite the inherent flaws of a
> >>>>hierarchical model such as XML, it has seen such widespread uptake?
>
> >>>It's all hype, of course.
>
> >>>Btw., what fundamental flaws?
>
> >>Well, let's see... How about we start with: "The inability to re-order
> >>the data without changing meaning and without destroying information." ?
>
> > "Hierarchical models such as XML" are not necessarily ordered-only
> > data models. In fact most proposals for semistructured data models
> > before XML weren't.
>
> > But even in XML this is not a big problem. Whether reordering destroys
> > information or not depends on your interpretation of the data. If you
> > send me an XML document and in addition tell me that certain parts
> > represent sets then I can reorder them without destroying any
> > information. The fact that XML is an ordered data model only implies
> > that it *might* destroy informaton, not that it *must*.
>
> That's a nit. If one cannot always safely reorder, then one cannot
> safely reorder.

I thought we were having a serious discussion, not playing trivial word games. My mistake.

• Jan Hidders