Re: A good argument for XML

arthernan_at_hotmail.com wrote:
>
> Looking at the information and shape of multiple reports, they
> resemble more XML (hierarchical) than tabular data. So why not have a
> better data processing tool that produces an XML that should only
> require light page forming to produce a report.
>
> That way the data processing and graphic report design can be
> logically separated.
>
> If we were going to take that route then it does make sense to
> have a query language that produces hierarchical file outputs. Today
> many people do this by querying the database from a procedural language
> and producing and XML iteratively. But leaves programmers like me
> hoping for a richer syntax.

Richer than, say, SQL-2003 or Date & Darwen's "Tutorial-D"? Note that these also allow you to define hierarchical data-structures (although not as unrestricted as XQuery would) but are easier to optimize than XQuery and are therefore much more likely to give you scalable solutions.

• Jan Hidders