Re: native xml processing vs what Postgres and Oracle offer

From: Walter Mitty <wamitty_at_verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:26:34 GMT
Message-ID: <K_yXk.1467$QX3.1381_at_nwrddc02.gnilink.net>


"paul c" <toledobythesea_at_oohay.ac> wrote in message news:nUeXk.560$si6.520_at_edtnps83...

> I don't want to disparage the original rfc authors as many of the rfc's
> date from the days when ignorance of data models was more innocent than
> today's willful arrogance

A great deal of today's ignorance is innocent.

All babies are born completely ignorant. (I'm discounting genetic "memory" and learning in the womb). Many babies who grow up, graduate from college or graduate school with a CS or SE major ,and emerge from that field of study with no exposure to data modeling or database design. In most cases, they are completely innocent of that omission. If there is any willful arrogance here, it's on the part of the curriculum designers in the faculty.

Many former babies spend from 5 to 15 years in the programming profession before they are given their first assignment where data modeling or database design skills are critical to project success. By that time, they have acquired a kind of arrogance that's based on the following: "Well, I've been a competent professional for about 10 years now, and I've gotten along just fine without data modeling or database design. I'll just pick it up on the fly. How hard can it be?"

This is arrogance, but it's not clear how wilfull it is.

Add to this the fact that many of these heroes have mastered object modeling, and are likely to view data modeling as a trivial subset of object modeling, and you have all the ingredients for ""willful arrogance". Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Received on Thu Nov 27 2008 - 16:26:34 CET

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