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Re: storing XML files

• From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
• To: xml-dev <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 16:11:15 -0400

At 12:13 AM -0700 10/10/01, Ronald Bourret wrote:


>The problem is that NITF uses mixed content and mixed content doesn't
>map well with an object-relational mapping. (I won't go into the details
>here. If you want to read more about this, see sections 3.3 and 3.4 of
>http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/05/09/dtdtodbs.html.)
>
>Furthermore, as far as I know, the only product that supports mixed
>content in an object-relational mapping is mine (XML-DBMS) and I
>recommend that people don't use XML-DBMS with mixed content because it
>is so inefficient. (XML-DBMS started out as a research project and I
>supported mixed content for completeness. Were I to do it over again, I
>probably wouldn't support it.)
>

I'm a little surprised that more products don't support mixed content. I must say that if a so-called XML database doesn't support semi-structured data and mixed content, I really can't see why you'd use it instead of a relational database. In fact, I'd venture to say that if your database can't handle mixed content, then it isn't an XML database. Mixed content is a *very* fundamental part of XML, not something that can be ignored. 

I guess I'll have to add "Do you support mixed content?" to the list of tough questions I bother XML database vendors with on the exhibit floor at conferences. :-)
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ 
|          The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001)           |
|              http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/bible2/              |
|   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764547607/cafeaulaitA/   |
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