Storing Lots of Fiddly Bits (was Re: What is XML for?)

[Paul Prescod]

Marcelo Cantos wrote:
> 
> Object databases excel in the area of expressiveness which enables
> them to support much more complex queries than we can.  At present,
> our product (SIM) doesn't support ad hoc queries.  It is more like a
> relational database in that you define fields, which can be physical
> fields or calculated fields (this means we support arbitrarily complex
> structure, but have to decide in advance which set of queries to
> support, a compromise that has kept our customers happy so far).  

But what does a query consist of? Can it cross links? Links between
documents? Multiended XLinks or HyTime links? 

Also, you say that SIM is good at "data, not objects." By data do you mean
only textual data? Could you characterize the data it is best at handling?

> So while the IR community is closing the gap in the area of
> expressiveness, I wonder if the Object community can catch up in the
> area of performance (or maybe it's already there and I just don't know
> it).

I don't think ODB performance is there yet, but the text storage people
aren't the only ones who need it so I expect it will be someday.
-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
 http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did,
but she did it backwards and in high heels."
                                               --Faith Whittlesey

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