Re: Optimisation (was Remove duplicates from a list)

[Tim Taylor <ttaylor@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Kay Michael wrote:
> 
> > This is entirely conjecture, but I predict that optimization
> > will follow a similar path as programming language compilers.
> 
> Yes, though I suspect SQL is a better analogy, because we're dealing with a
> more declarative language. And it took about 10 years for the theory of SQL
> optimisation to become refined.

Yes, that is a better analogy.  It makes me wonder, even today, if you
have a complex SQL query, you're often better off giving optimization
hints instead of letting the query optimizer have at it.  That's the
case we've found with MS SQL Server, anyhow, which maybe is damning in
and of itself :)

How much has optimization played into the design of XSL and XPath?  Have
the XSL processor implementors been able to suggest modifications to the
spec to improve the optimizability?  Apologies if the answers should be
obvious to me.

Tim


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