[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: RE: XML indexing/search engine
> But not all data is tables or can easily be fit into one. There's a > lot of real-world data, including many narrative documents like > books, newspapers, diaries, letters, articles, magazines, pamphlets, > brochures, and more that just doesn't fit into a relational model. > > Vector diagrams like UML, CAD, PICT, SVG, EPS, and similar also don't > fit the relational model. It's important to understand the difference between the relational model and implementation choices made by vendors. The relational model is about sets (relations) and defined mathematical operations that act on those sets. Sets are unordered. There is a difference between the conceptual, logical and physical model of data. One defining characteristic of the relational model is it does not specify the physical representation of the data -- it's about the logical model, not the physical model. Chris Date has supplemented Codd's work with more recent writings about domains. Simply put: domain = class. He's said the ideas of object-oriented are "orthogonal to the ideas of the relational model" because "nowhere does the relational model prescribe what data types you have. It simply has a mechanism that allows you to define data types." So perhaps we should be asking more appropriate questions such as: 1. Should we attempt to retrieve information from the perspective of logical operations or build ad hoc data retrieval solutions that are tied to the underlying physical data structure? 2. Is there value in applying relational operations and integrity rules when managing and accessing sets comprised of XML documents or UML models or SVG graphics? For example, do I want to run a query over a database of aircraft schematics that does a structural analysis of a specific part and retrieves all diagrams having the same part? If, for example, the FAA recalls a part from all Boeing 757-Ds, do I want to cascade that update to all aircraft models having the same part and to all (XML) inventory documents and manifests with that part?
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