Re: Subject: RE: [xsl] A list of useful functions that aren't in the core of xsl.

[Jim Melton <jim.melton@xxxxxxx>]

Hugh,

I happen to work for a company for which this technology is quite important 
--- a database company ;^)

It is my (and our) experience that there is no one right way to "shred" 
hierarchical tree-structured, semi-structured data such as that represented 
in XML into inherently regular rectangular structures such as SQL's tables.

Instead, there are practically an infinite number of ways.  Indeed, for any 
given XML structure definition (e.g., DTD, Schema), there are potentially 
dozens (or more!) ways of performing the conversion.  It is my belief 
(perhaps, or perhaps not, shared by my employer) that the best we'll ever 
be able to do is use some heuristics to suggest a shredding (or mapping or 
conversion) based on a particular DTD or Schema, then allow the application 
author make changes necessitated by the application's requirements.

Reasonable people may differ and think that there's some "obvious" way to 
do it, possibly "reducto ad extremum" in nature, but I question how useful 
such an approach will be to most users.

Sorry!
   Jim

At 10:39 2003-03-26 +1100 Wednesday, Hugh Dixon wrote:
> Re "Converting a hierarchical to a pseudo relational xml format" (XSL
> list, 3/22/2003).
> Thanks for the mention!!
> Actually I'd appreciate any suggestion/ideas/thoughts about how to go
> about this, as I currently cannot see aeven an initial algorithm.
> Thx
> Hugh Dixon
>
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list

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Jim Melton --- Editor of ISO/IEC 9075-* (SQL)     Phone: +1.801.942.0144
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