On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Geoff <[email protected]> wrote: > Obviously I need to restate my questions or statements in a manner that > doesn't assume you have a clue about what I am really trying to say. When I > referred to a 'standard approach' I really should have used the words > 'default approach'. Some people are using XML as the default approach rather > than on a needs basis. When I refer to binary format I am referring > essentially to a native format. For example DBFs. Zip up a DBF result set > and transmit it or use XML. I wonder which is smaller? And both ZIP and DBF > are standards that any language can handle - if that were even an issue. --------------
Now I get your point. I see that your going to need to send a pair of files, dbf and index, heck you might even need to send a memo. That would be real hard to deal with for anyone outside of an xBase background. >> My question revolves around the transmission of data and why use a >> verbose >> format when binary will do. > > Now will adding a '?' to the previous sentence make it a question for you? > > One of my complaints is XML-evangelists. They say it is the greatest thing > since sliced bread and disparage any other method. It has its place as I > have actually stated. In fact my question goes to the heart of 'when' to use > it. -------------- I use it as frequently as you use a cursor as a guess. For starters it is passable between servers, so my app server can pass back an XML object to use as the data source for a dropdown list in the web server that will present the loaded control to you on a web page or to your winform client. I don't use XML for massive amounts of data, just small packages. What is great about XML is that you can combine many different forms of data into the same XML envelope or object. So to take the concept of abstracting a common term and combining additional data that is additional could be natural. When you think of "customer data" do you flash a thought of a row of data on who it is and descriptive info about that customer? Do you see lists of orders, invoices paid, invoices outstanding, lists of communications between your companies? XML allows you to package all of that content together and pass it around easily. Say you weer in a B2B situation where the other business is your attorney, and you are passing this XML object to them because they have not paid on invoices for the past 9 months. Or you could pass that same XML object to a form for your marketing people who have an interface ready to run forecasting on. > As for what is and isn't a question, I suggest you revisit Grammar 101. I > have obviously stirred up a hornet's nest when asking a simple question > about XML and the responses have been extraordinary as well as utterly > irrelevant. > > I feel like the boy who said "the emperor has no clothes". But if you > remember the story, the boy was right. -------------------------------------------- Well if you think that is appropriate here so be it. I don't see how your expectations for the world to embrace dbfs as superior has to have some distractions to the idea otherwise others would already be doing it. Now add on to the concept that your going to compress the chunk for a faster transmission and then decompress on the receive side for use there. More steps where an impartial fie delivery means that it is crud, and data is not usable. Seems scary to propose a potential like that. -- Stephen Russell Sr. Production Systems Programmer First Horizon Bank Memphis TN 901.246-0159 _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
