Re: XML databases [ was: S.O.D.A. database Query API - call for comments ]

Philip Lijnzaad wrote:
> Carl> - allow queries for points of interest without parsing the entire
> Carl> document
>
> Impossible if the entire document is a complex interconnected graph.

No, not impossible, if indices are included where needed.

> Carl> - use up exactly the amount of information that the original data
 contains:
> Carl> - Integer, Float = 4 bytes
>
> What byte-sex?

Here we will already get the problem on agreeing on a standard.

> Carl> - Long, Double = 8 bytes
> Carl> - Unicode would be possible
> Carl> - no tags
>
> Exactly all of this and more is now already offered by CORBA's IIOP and
 CDR
> :-)

I have been researching CDR a year ago and I found it quite amusing. An unofficial remainder of a document is still left over here: http://www.db4o.com/db4o/yap.html#Why
Some links might be dead.

CDR includes the necessity to specify the byte order over-and-over again with every little bit of data. People seemed to have had a problem to agree on one or the other.

> Carl> Carl> - internal links would simply be pointers within the file
> Carl> = internal file offset
>
> I have the feeling this is brittle, but I guess it can be made to work.

It is our file format. :-)

> BTW, these things are hardly new; Lisp has been portably
> representing complex graphs for twenty or so years. And it
> is far more powerful and far less crufty :-)

The best technology is hardly ever used because people stick to their own interest. Evolution just takes time.

Kind regards,
Carl

---
Carl Rosenberger
db4o - database for objects - http://www.db4o.com