• To: Michael Kay <mike@s...>
• Subject: Re: Indexing solution for native XML database
• From: Peter Hunsberger <peter.hunsberger@g...>
• Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 15:37:06 -0600
• Cc: Timo Hildén <castaway@d...>, xml-dev@l...
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On 11/29/05, Michael Kay <mike@s...> wrote:
> > Sure, a relational database might not be the best fit for a given
> > hierarchical structure. But for other cases the fit may be as good or
> > better than any other database....
>
> I was under the impression the OP was trying to design a relational database
> to hold arbitrary XML documents, not to hold a specific document. In other
> words, to implement a hierarchical database on top of a relational database.

Could be, given his examples I assumed otherwise...

> I don't think that's a good way of implementing a hierarchical database. I
> apologize that I don't have time to write a detailed rationale for that
> view, but it's based on a lot of experience, including expensive failures of
> projects that tried to do exactly that.

No need for a rationale.  I'd agree that for arbitrary documents, even
with XML Schema's generalized mapping to a RDB is a hard problem that
is unlikely to yield good results in most cases.

--
Peter Hunsberger

• References:
  • Re: Indexing solution for native XML database
    • From: Peter Hunsberger <peter.hunsberger@g...>
  • RE: Indexing solution for native XML database
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>

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