Re: Xquery might have some things right

"Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com> wrote in message news:c23mr0$2dd$1_at_news.netins.net...
> "Christopher Browne" <cbbrowne_at_acm.org> wrote in message
> news:c23lje$1o07nm$1_at_ID-125932.news.uni-berlin.de...
> > The deficiencies surely look like they are more enormous than any
> > _conceivable_ merits.
>
> Yes, but it does have to walk before running -- it is an emerging standard
> still being brought to life.

Yes, but surely its foundations are either in place or not. It's far beyond "tweaking."

> You would normally see me nodding in agreement, however, replacing ODBC
> (JDBC, OLE/DB) with a standard means of querying data that doesn't require
> SQL in the mix will require Microsoft's backing (money talks and all).

I thought that's what OLE/DB was? I believe those technologies, and JDBC, don't require SQL at all - they just require processing to be done on a query. While JDBC is certainly geared toward SQL, and has SQL-specific extensions, the usual execute method would work on anything. You just have to supply the driver.

In any event, XQuery simply pushes a lot more work on developers. Instead of saying what I want, I have to say how to get it, in gory dog-ugly detail.

> > Looks like a futile boondoggle to me...
>
> You don't see a reasonable, though unbearably slow, progression from data
> exchange:
> 1. by putting data in "card columns" then virtual card columns
distributed
> on mag tape
> 2. then ftp'ing or e-mailing comma-quote files
> 3. to now including the metadata for the data within the document itself

The trouble is, metadata is already available. In JDBC, you can get lots of gory detail. In relational DBMSs with a standard catalog, much much more would be available - maybe Dataphor already provides it. But the data in an XML document is metadata in only a very limited way. It's barely useful for humans reading a doc, and of minimal value for a program.

> It is a small step, but one that will make a significant contribution to
> software application integration, methinks.
> Cheers! --dawn

It appears to for a few seconds if you squint, but the reality is that the Roman alphabet is insufficient to make me learn Romanian.

• erk