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List:       xml4lib
Subject:    [XML4LIB] RE: shining a lamp on xml
From:       summerhi () unr ! edu (Craig A !  Summerhill)
Date:       2004-07-22 19:47:46
Message-ID: 5.1.1.6.2.20040722162435.00a7ec98 () equinox ! unr ! edu
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On 7/22/2004, Karen Schneider wrote:
>
>(Shared collegially in case anyone disagrees with my comments)

I haven't actually seen Eric's work yet... I keep getting a
DNS error from the infomotions.com URL... so this is a comment
on Karen's comments.


> > "Think of XML as if it represented tab-delimited text files on
> > steroids."
>
>But then, I think this is your real lede:
>
> > "[Libraries] are becoming less about books and more about the ideas
> > and concepts manifested in the books. In both of these spheres of
> > influence there needs to be a way to move data and information around
> > efficiently and effectively. XML data shared between computers and
> > computer programs via the hypertext transfer protocol represents an
> > evolving method to facilitate this sharing, a method generically
> > called Web Services."
>
>(Isn't this really why XML is important, not because it resembles
>tab-delimited files on steroids?)

In general, I agree with what Karen is saying... but I also understand
what Eric is talking about too.

The is one point I always try to make when I talk to librarians and
other computer people about XML.  In my opinion, the biggest thing
XML has going for itself is the *ability to encode relational data.*
The "tab-delimited text file" (e.g. the spreadsheet view of data)
is limited to a row / columnar view of data.

I usually explain it to people this way...


    "So you're working in your spreadsheet, entering data... and all
    of the sudden you need to enter more than one value in a single
    cell on the table.  What do you do?"

The need to handle one-to-many relationships is why the relational
DBMS was developed.  XML can easily accommodate encoding of one-to-many
relationships, and can actually do so in a couple of ways.

Using subelements:

    <element>
      <subelement>Value 1</subelement>
      <subelement>Value 2</subelement>
      <subelement>Value 3</subelement>
    <element>

Using attributes:

    <element attribute="Value 1" attribute="Value 2" attribute="Value 3" />

Can tab and comma delimited files encode relational data.  Of course,
but it requires some well known syntax for expressing the substructure
in the data, and it requires a parsing routine to read and break apart
the substructure.  Neither of those are straightforward (as odd as that
may seem) when it comes to moving data from one system to another.

By contrast, XML is very intuitive.  It is more like reading a book or
a paper than reading row / columnar data.  A real person can fairly
easily glance through an XML encoded object and get some good sense
of what is being described in it... which is not always the case with
row / columnar data.


>This has the potential to be a very important resource.  You could
>reach a lot of librarians with this. Good luck!

Yeah?  I'd like to see it...

We're ramping up our use of XML considerably this summer.  Currently,
there are only one or two people in the organization (other than
myself) who know much about XML though.

The thing I'm really looking for, personally speaking, is a "dream
editor" for XML data.  I asked the question of "what XML editors other
people are using" on another list Karen is on a few months back, and
only got a couple of replies.  What I am really looking for is a tool
that will allow the person to load a single XML object, and then has
a GUI interface that will allow the user to layout the data and
create XSLT style sheets from the resulting layout.

I'm up to my ears in products that will open an XML editor and display
the tags & data, but... to perpetuate the steroids analogy... I want
something more than "WordPad on steroids."

Has anybody looked at MS Word 2003 yet?  I just loaded it last week,
and I noticed it has significantly enhanced XML capabilities over
MS Word 2002.  Also has a "File::Save As" XSLT stylesheet feature.

-- 

    Craig A. Summerhill
    Applications Development Librarian
    University of Nevada, Reno
    Getchell Library 174A / Mail Stop 322
    1664 North Virginia Street
    Reno, NV   89557-0042

       (775) 784-6500 x227
       <summerhi@unr.edu>


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