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Hypertext and complexity (was RE: XML, hypertext)

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Hypertext and complexity (was RE: XML, hypertext)
• From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
• Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 10:50:53 -0400
• In-reply-to: <2C61CCE8A870D211A523080009B94E430752B809@HQ5>

8/16/2002 10:32:03 AM, "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...> wrote:

>
>For those who are understandably irritated by the increasing 
>complexity of XML specifications, note where things start 
>to become complex in each as one attempts to make a global 
>network of resources *behave* as if it were a semi-normalized 
>database.  Hypertext/hypermedia is an old old form of 
>a database, and it isn't simple to take any abstract 
>resource anywhere anytime with n representations per 
>resource and make it accessible with the same kinds 
>of unified views afforded by modern relational or 
>even neo-modern object-oriented systems.  Trying to 
>do that has resulted in much of the noted complexity.

You wouldn't want to elaborate on that, would you?  It's
intriguing, but I don't completely follow.

The increasing complexity of XML comes, as far as I can
tell, with taking an SGML subset and adding namespaces,
integration with "the Web" (e.g. the URI debacle), 
integration with strongly typed and/or OO programming
languages (e.g., WXS), and the attempt to reconcile all
of the above with the vision of the semantic web. I definitely
see problems treating all this as if it were a normalized
database, but I don't see the attempt to treat it as a
"database" driving the complexity.    If anything, in my
humble and biased opinion, thinking of the XML/XTHTML
Web as a "database" would impose a useful discipline and
motivate people to whack off a lot of complexity.

There's a certain amount of self-inflicted complexity e.g. the
obvious political compromises one sees in WXS and DOM, and
the incompatibilities between the DOM and XPath data models.
That's just reality in a consortium of competitors in a rapidly
changing world, and will be sorted out someday, probably by fiat.
Again, I don't see this as having much to do with "semi-
normalized databases."

What am I missing?

• References:
  • RE: XML, hypertext
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>

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