Re: Textual transmission typically faster?

[Ken North <ken_north@compuserve.com>]

> most DBs at present are relational, and the data doesn't really need much
in the way of
> tree structure (any object-relational mapping will usually be on the
> application side).

If you're talking about SQL databases, platforms such as IBM DB2, Informix,
and Oracle moved from relational to object-relational several years ago.
They've added extensions or 'plug-ins' to provide types and functions for
working with XML. Whether there is mapping, and how it is done, is dependent
in part on the type or types you use for a document. There are also issues
such as whether you use Java in the database and serialization.