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What Do You Know About Databases And XML?

Posted by Hemos on from the not-enough-to-brag dept.

Dare Obasanjo writes: "XML has become a pervasive part of significant segments of software development in a relatively short time. From file formats to network protocols to programming langauges, the influence of XML has been felt. I have written an overview of XML schemas, XML querying languages, XML-Enabled databases and native XML databases. Below is a shortened version of the article." Obasanjo's original OODBMS article has been updated to reflect more of the disadvantages between picking an OODBMS over an RDBMS.

5 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Super short intro to XML by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 3, Flamebait
    XML solves the interchange problem.

    By this, it is meant that XML allows two systems that do not share a predetermined data exchange protocol to share data.

    Thats it.

    Where two systems share a common predetermined protocol, it is almost always more efficient than XML.

    Applications of XML to programming lang design (XSL) and other domains are largely a waste of time and won't last.

    1. Re:Super short intro to XML by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 1, Flamebait
      Find one useful site that profitably uses XSL and XML.

      I'm not trolling, its just a fact - you're almost always better off using CSS for presentation tweaks, and PHP on the server for serious logic.

  2. Re:XML solutions by VEGETA_GT · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    doh, well its sopose to be www.phoenixca.com hehehe. thats if anyone is inerested >:)-

  3. Re:Same article on kuro5hin by Skapare · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So you of course you come over here and leak it to the trolls? You trying to sabotage kuro5hin or something? Shame on you.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  4. More XML nonsense... by brams · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    This is another characteristically flawed discussion on the promises of XML.

    Platform independence. Nope. This depends on the committment of hardware and software manufacturers to build compatible cross-platform technologies -- and commit to them for long periods of time. Parsers, browsers, OS's, databases, languages, etc. What are we learning with Java? Sun and Microsoft can't even come to agreement on it. Just how many browsers out there support the full range of XML implementation? Who's going to dominate this battle? Who's going to lose?

    Data interchange vs. data storage. Things like Xscheme, xquery, etc. are all duplicates of technologies which have existed in RDBMS technologies for 20 years. Most of the XML apps. I've seen look like a trip backward in time, to the days of flat and denormalized databases.

    The glorious w3c. It's $50,000/year to join, and dominated by Fortune 1000's. Is this the best drumbeat that we should all march to?

    The Layered Network Model. XML is a little problematic for me in that, if used to send tags to a browser, seems to violate the basic separation of presentation, session, and application layers. The definitive data source must be server-side, and HTTP (with a presentation layer!) is hardly the best place to be doing data conversions. Probably a dedicated socket elsewhere. Why involve the client and a browser in the exchange of data formats? XML re-invents the wheel and puts it on the wrong place of the carriage.

    I have a fuller discussion on the problems of XML here: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~brams006/mortality.html.