Re: [xml-dev] XML vs relational database

[Sylvain LOISEAU <sylvain.loiseau@wanadoo.fr>]

>> In a relational database, a standard query
>> allows to retreive data, but does not allow to investigate
>> the design of the database
>
> Not true. The SQL standard defines a standard set of tables that hold
> metadata, ie. information about tables and columns. At any rate, it did  
> so about 20 years ago which was the last time I looked.

Yes, I referred to it improperly as "the administration database". I agree that, practically, you have access to the database structure in DBMS, but I'm wondering if this is the same thing as in XML where the structure exhibit imediatly both its structure and its content, without the need of a "meta"-something. Don't you think there is a structural difference, from this point of view, between XML and DBMS?

Sylvain

-- 
Sylvain Loiseau
sloiseau@limsi.fr
http://www.limsi.fr/~sloiseau

On peut pratiquer objectivement, c'est-à-dire impartialement,
une recherche dont l'objet ne peut être conçu et construit
sans rapport à une qualification positive et négative, dont
l'objet n'est donc pas tant un fait qu'une valeur.

Canguilhem, /Le normal et le pathologique/, p. 157