Eric van der Vlist wrote: > > Hi Stefano, > > Stefano Mazzocchi wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > while the world of native XML databases is full of marketing hype and > > promises, it is evident (for all those who tried) that mapping general > > XML schemas to relational databases can be sometimes very painful and > > not very efficient. > > > > In fact, it is widely recognized from the database research community > > that while well structured can be easily and efficiently mapped to a > > relational database, less structured (often called semi-structured) data > > is much more difficult to map. > > > > Just for fun and also to take a step backward and evaluate the changes > and invariants in our perception of XML systems, I couldn't resist > reading some old emails exchanged two years ago! > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xml-server/message/32 > > Enjoy :)
:) Eric, thanks much for this. Really! I have not forgotten and let me tell you, I really love when I make mistakes and I understand I did. Understanding my faults is the best way to learn and to earn experience and respect for other's opinions. Of course, I will make mistakes in the future and I could even be making a mistake now by proposing this project, I don't know, but one thing is for sure, everytime I did or I changed my mind, I humbly acknowledged it. Yes, in the past I thought (as others are doing now) that the relational model was sufficient to map XML documents, thus an XML->relational binding was the right way to go. This is why I thought XML db were pure marketing hype. Now I have changed my mind, expecially after reading the papers written by the Standford DB group that worked for years on a DBMS solution for semi-structured data proving that relational is enough but not well suited. (just because it's possible to write an operating system in Java or Assembly it doesn't mean you should do it, right?) So, yes, just like I did with several architectural decisions made for Cocoon1, I have changed my mind on XML databases and want to start a community exactly to research the best way to add ACID properties to semi-structured XML documents. If this way turns out to be a relational mapping, I was wrong again, if not, well, we'll have a solid solution to build our XML repositories on. Stefano. --------------------------------------------------------------------- In case of troubles, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
