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RE: Another "Against the Grain" column on XML

  • From: Frank Richards <frichards@s...>
  • To: xml-dev <xml-dev@l...>
  • Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2001 12:40:11 -0400

column with xml
'[D]ue to their horrendous complexity and inflexibility, databases and DBMSs relying on the hierarchical model became obsolete  in the 80's, at least technologically. SQL DBMSs based ... on the simpler relational data model, based on predicate logic and set mathematics proved superior. ...What is the justification, then, for choosing a more complex, discredited data model for data exchange, when a majority of commonly used DBMSs employ a simpler, sounder and, thus, superior data model?'
 
Well, speaking of complexity.... I'm largely a document person, and much of my 'data-side' experience has been bibliographic. And frankly, doing so using an RDBMS has frequently felt like programming a Turing machine. Sure you can do anything that way, and you know you can. But it sure is the hard way. This is complex multidemsional __information__ and splitting it into 2D tables is work, and then getting it back in a useful way is a major task for the server.
 
I also have to be skeptical of his charges of inflexibilty: The inflexibility of the relational DBAs has uniformly been a major stumbling block: It seems to take an order from the CEO countersigned by Codd to make a trival change in the schema.
 
So IMO, if we're insulting people, I suggest that RDBMS are wonderfully designed for beancounting, and that as soon as you try to start dealing with the real world instead of making the world deal with your data structures, an RDBMS doesn't look so wonderful.
 
Frank

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