[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] XPath conformance? was RE: storing XML files
> -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Parkerson [mailto:chrisp@e...] > Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 11:10 AM > To: 'Champion, Mike'; xml-dev@l... > Subject: RE: storing XML files > > > At least we admit it's not XPath... Well this on-topic for XML-DEV: what standards really are, what they should be, and whether we can agree on what "is" is. <grin> First, I don't have detailed information on any comparisons of XML DBMS's XPath conformance. Pointers would be appreciated ...and polite requests to take this discussion to xmldb@x... would be heeded! I'd submit that a processor that executes legal XPath expressions "is" an XPath processor, whatever it's called, and whatever superset of XPath syntax it also supports. To assert otherwise would put us on the path to saying that SQL is not "really" supported by any of the RDBMS vendors because they've all extended it. At the far end of that path are the purists who assert that nobody has ever really implemented a relational DBMS! I [speaking for myself, not my long-suffering employer, blah blah] would also submit that it is the DUTY of vendors in a fast-moving technology field to attempt to get real-world experience with desireable features (such as the ability to do full-text searching within XML elements) before proposing them for standardization. Standards are best when based on the intersection of field-tested technologies rather than the union of plausible technologies. &myusualrant; "Embrace and extend" got a bad name because a certain large company was accused of trying to addict its customers to extensions that were simply different or more convenient ways of doing what could be done perfectly well within the standards. Offering customer-demanded extensions to fill obvious gaps in the standards is another thing entirely, ESPECIALLY if that knowledge is fed back to the standards keepers. This is exactly what Software AG has done with XQL / XPath / X-Query / XQuery over the last few years.
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