xml-dev - RE: xml search engine?

["Didier PH Martin" <martind@netfolder.com>]

Hi Martin,

Martin said:
You suggest node_set = object.selectNodes("MartinBryanQuery", query)

What about node_set = object.selectNodes(namespace, element, attribute,
content)

(QueryType is really not needed if you are specifically trying to query XML
data. The namespace identifies the set of indexables. OK, you might want a
generalized mechanism that allowed you to use something like SQL, but this
would not rely on context in any way, so your "non-XML-aware" version might
work in those circumstances.)

Didier replies:
So the question then is what about all the possible query language type that
can return node-sets like for instance SQL?
Your construct is too restrictive to a single Query language type and a
single information space. The world has more diversity than that. You
already have the XPath string based expression that allows you to express
the entities you mention in a single string. There is no needs to have then
multiple parameters.

What you are proposing is a subset of possible query languages where all the
information space is reduced to a single domain (I mean here an information
or knowledge domain not a DNS domain). The Adriane project realized by the U
of California present such world. But there is also non integrated worlds
where all the information space is not integrated in the same domain. In
that case, we need to specify the information space identifier and adapt to
each information space notation as long as this notation an fit in a string.
There is a big number of them that fit into this crieria.

Off course, the function I proposed has a drawback like forcing that all
queries fit in a string, but as I also demonstrated, the string could be
made form several lines.

So, let's not redo XPath but more expand the information access to other
information space universe as long as these universes are accessible with
some common objects (i.e. node, node-sets).

Have you taken a look that the article referred by the link?

cheers
Didier PH Martin
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