Hi Folks,
Excellent discussion!
A lot of important issues have been raised. I
would like to focus on one issue, and then come back to the other
issues.
The issue is this: what are the roles of an XML
document?
As I have been doing with my previous
messages, I will make a hypothesis and then invite your critique.
Hypothesis: The Role of an XML Document is either as a Storage Medium
or as a Transport Format
An XML document may take one of these
roles:
(1) The XML document is a storage
medium. Applications operate directly on the XML document.
(2) The XML document is a (transient) transport
format. Upon arrival at its destination the data is moved into a storage
medium (such as a relational database). Applications do not operate on the
XML document. Applications operate on the data in the storage
medium.
Questions:
1. I believe that these two roles represent
the two ends of the spectrum for all possible uses of XML. (Of course,
mixed forms are possible) Is there another role that is not
captured? (i.e., a third dimension?)
2. Peter: I think that XML documents containing presentation-specific data
falls under the first category (XML as a storage medium). Do you
agree?
3. Doug: you make an interesting point about not knowing who will be the
consumer of an XML document. I suppose in those cases the XML designer
simply makes a best-guess on the role of the XML document. What do you
think?
4. Joe: you make an interesting point about XML documents that are
transformed into another XML vocabulary. Would such documents fall under
the second category (XML as a transport format)?
5. Ken: you mentioned the case of XML being stuffed into a relational
database as a whole document (i.e., not shredded into tables), and applications
operating directly on the XML documents in the database. How does this fit
into the above categories, or does it?
Comments? /Roger
