Re: RE: [xml-dev] XML indexing/search engine

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

At 3:12 PM -0400 8/23/02, Mike Champion wrote:

>I would never voluntarily use the word "semiotic"
>in a sentence without quotes around it :~) but I think I
>agree.  Data that will be re-used in unpredictable ways
>and updated by multiple applications really should be
>normalized and stored in an RDBMS to minimize redundancy,
>maintain referential integrity, preserve independence between
>the store and the application, and all the other things that
>Prof. Codd talks about.
>

But not all data is tables or can easily be fit into one. There's a 
lot of real-world data, including many narrative documents like 
books, newspapers, diaries, letters, articles, magazines, pamphlets, 
brochures, and more that just doesn't fit into a relational model. 
Vector diagrams like UML, CAD, PICT, SVG, EPS, and similar also don't 
fit the relational model. And don't get me started on efforts to 
shove objects and classes into relational databases.

Relational databases are wonderful tools for some kinds of data. But 
they don't fit all data equally well. Neither does XML. Neither do 
objects. Use the right tool for the right job.
-- 

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| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
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