Tim Gales wrote:
But when it comes time to exchange data from one table in a database to another database -- even within the the same DBMS -- all bets about the "not-needing-to-be-next-to-another-attribute-ness" are off. (e.g. as in a comma separated file)
I've never run into this issue. I've run into the "if you don't specify the order, the database will use it's own default ordering" - and a lot of depending on "select *" to give things in the "correct" order.
But one can hardly blame databases for having different defaults if you fail to specify one.
Thus XML frees you from the confines of having to carefully order your data when you want to exchange it. Now if during the exchange of XML data it has to stop on a system and be stored, it certainly makes sense to put it into an XML database.
This statement prompted my reason for replying. Is there a standalone set of tools for updating/editing an XML database?
I'm thinking of something along the lines of Microsoft Access, where you have 1 tool which has forms, program logic, and a database and all the data ends up "together" from a user standpoint. So I can give someone a couple of access files and they have a complete application they can run locally?
(In case one is curious, my father was demonstrating a little MSAccess app he is putting together for tracking/monitoring environmental data. Something along the lines of the life cycle of animals in an environment, the number of particular animals seen, yadda yadda yadda.
I don't pretend to understand what it is he is doing, it's just his current crusade to organize his own data and give other people the ability to track the same data and share it with each other in an organized fashion.
He was motivated to do so after he discovered how useful having such data organized and handy is when disputing the environmental impact statements of company paid environmental surveyors doing a 1 day study)
Something non-Access based would be better, but since this basically is a tool for non-techies, it has to be simple and not dependent on a centralized server for the data to be housed.
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