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Re: Question for updating existing XML file

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Question for updating existing XML file
• From: Joe English <jenglish@f...>
• Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 09:10:41 -0700
• In-reply-to: <1E0CC447E59C974CA5C7160D2A2854EC097E57@S...>
• References: <1E0CC447E59C974CA5C7160D2A2854EC097E57@S...>

Peter Hunsberger wrote:

> A more general comment/question: it recently occurred to me that it is
> likely possible to model any XML Schema as a relational schema (proof of
> this theorem is left as an exercise for the reader  ;-)? Don't know what
> that gets you, but as I've said at least the tools abound...

It often gets you a really bad relational schema.

The relational model has a difficult time with things
like recursive elements (think of nested DIVs in HTML).
Element types with lots of optional attributes and repeatable
subelements get hairy when translated the relational model.
Mixed content is problematic too.

Another exercise for the reader: try modeling something
simple like HTML 2.0 (or for the really adventurous, something
more complex like DocBook) as a relational database.
It's probably doable, but I doubt you'd really want
to work with any database that was structured that way.


--Joe English

  jenglish@f...

• References:
  • RE: Question for updating existing XML file
    • From: "Hunsberger, Peter" <Peter.Hunsberger@S...>

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