OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

 


 

   RE: [xml-dev] bohemians, gentry

[ Lists Home | Date Index | Thread Index ]

Ah, yes. Because arbitrary precision decimals are wide spread and interoperable across multiple platforms and programming languages. I remember reading somewhere that W3C XML Schema just added a third layer of impedence mismatch to the mix. In the old days we had objects --> database impedence mismatches which cultivated the rise of object oriented databases. Now we have XSD ->objects-> database as the new impedence mismatch. Quite frankly, I'm beginning to be of the opinion that the primacy of xs:integer and xs:decimal types in most schemas is a mistake given that we have xs:float, xs:double and xs:int which are guaranteed to interoperate while the former are not. 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Jonathan Robie [mailto:jonathan.robie@datadirect-technologies.com] 
	Sent: Wed 12/4/2002 11:57 AM 
	To: Rich Salz 
	Cc: XML DEV 
	Subject: Re: [xml-dev] bohemians, gentry
	
	

	At 02:43 PM 12/4/2002 -0500, Rich Salz wrote:
	There *is* a datatype that I could use to represent Pi to ten thousand
	digits (or one million if I bought the book):
	
	>3.2.3 decimal
	>
	>    [Definition:] decimal represents arbitrary precision decimal
	>    numbers.
	
	If the document uses this datatype, then the Wizards had better be aware of
	what the phrase "arbitrary precision" means. Using the datatype is a clear
	warning to applications. Without the datatype, an application might
	encounter decimals of very different sizes, but not be aware that arbitrary
	precision numbers might arise until they encounter the first REALLLY BIG
	number.
	
	Of course, you can write schemas that use decimals of fixed precision too.
	In either case, the schema is explicit about the kinds of data applications
	should be prepared to handle.
	
	So isn't the use of datatypes more helpful than harmful in this case?
	
	Jonathan
	
	
	-----------------------------------------------------------------
	The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an
	initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org>
	
	The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
	
	To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription
	manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl>
	
	





 

News | XML in Industry | Calendar | XML Registry
Marketplace | Resources | MyXML.org | Sponsors | Privacy Statement

Copyright 2001 XML.org. This site is hosted by OASIS