Hi,

At July 23, 2004, 06:19, Lester Caine wrote:

> Dave Benjamin wrote:

>> I'd expect the engine to do at least the following:
>>
>> - Ensure syntactical correctness
>> - Validate against an XML Schema or DTD
>> - Perform queries on subelements
>> - Perform modifications to the document model

> Basically - replace SQL with XML ?

> Personally I'd like to see how a large database such as the UK NI
> database could be 'stored' as XML. As far as I can see there has to be
> some mapping between the 'dump' of the entire database as an XML file,
> and a more compact and usable internal representation. I have the
> current XML Schemas, but they leave as many holes as plugs, and just
> define several possible ways of including all the same simple data ;)

> I'm slowly getting my head around the XML 'datatypes' and building a
> mapping I can work with, but I still haven't 'seen the light' on how
> this INTENDED to work practically.

Although, SQL-2003 standard has a document for how to work with XML,
I wasn't able to find a clear definition of what was the role of XML
for a RDBMS. And, I'm not even sure that I can even give much comments
related to the information in that document. That's how clear the
SQL-2003 XML document is to me. But, what I'm starting to grasp from
the document, until now, is that there seems to be an XML datatype
column(seems to be a blob subtype). And, an interface to do
DML/DDL statements(webservices/SOAP style) and that the DML/DDL
statements are written within the XML structure(practically nodes for
each keyword that is found in the DML/DDL statement).

That's what I understood from the SQL-2003 standards XML document.
I'll probably have to re-read it a few more times before commenting
any further. Also, the document is 212 pages and makes reference a
lot to another document of the standard.

I think that what people expect from an XML implementation might not
be what the SQL-2003 standards is mentioning. And, it might be
different from one person/company/industry to the next. So, I'm not
sure if an XML implementation can be achieved that would satisfy most
developers.

--
Best regards,
Daniel Rail
Senior System Engineer
ACCRA Group Inc. (www.accra.ca)
ACCRA Med Software Inc. (www.filopto.com)