Re: [Bug-gnupedia] just HTML??

[Christopher Mahan]

> > This discussion of databases versus XML is
> > ill-advised. Databases can not
> > organize content in the same way as a markup
> > language (how would you make
> > things like paragraph breaks represented in a DB
> > schema?)
>
> Easily! I'm not sure, but I have a feeling you can do
> this in a mySQL database anyway. I'll look into it.
> And even if you couldn't, as the database will have to
> be parsed by a perl script, you just have to put in
> <br> in for line breaks when you database it, and then
> read those when you parse it again for display. Any
> other markup you need is done in a similar way, and
> interpreted by the perl scripts youd have to have with
> or without an XML respository.
>
>
> > However, things can be XMl and then stored in or
> > indexed by a database. A
> > good way to do this is to make sure the entire DB is
> > reconstructable from the
> > plain XML files, and use the DB for speed of access,
> > searching, etc.
>
> Yes you could have a DB for catalogue individual XML
> files. But as one DB would be faster, easier to
> maintain and easier to construct (it is so much easier
> to put a submission straight into a database, rather
> than formatting it and saving it as an XML file), why
> have XML files at all? Until somebody gives proper
> proof of the advantages of the XML/DB idea (ie not
> just attitude, a logical document or a demo) I'm not
> at all convinced.
>
> Tom Chance

In my opinion, the only two advantages the XML has over db records is that 
it can be edited offline with a text editor, and that it can be stored 
anywhere on the web, using a server that does not need scripting capability.

For example, I could host my page.xml document at tripod, and they would be 
sent to the client as-is. This could be useful for people who are going to 
write javascript pages that are xml capable, and for non-browser interfaces 
(such as an application able to retrieve html and xml pages off the web) and 
SOAP-type systems.

As another example, it could allow for storing of the different elements of 
the article in mutiple places, on multiple servers, like:

<article>
  <article_id>UTX9839B</articleID>
  <article_body>
    <article_body_location>http://bodyserver.com/articles/UTX9839B.xml
    </article_body_location>
  </article_body>
  <article_video_clips>
    <video_clip>
      <clip_id>884iyhr5562.mpeg</clip_id>
      <clip_location>http://clipserver.com/clips/884iyhr5562.mpeg
      </clip location>
    </video_clip>
  </article_video_clips>
  <other_stuff>
  ...
  </other_stuff>
</article>
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