Re: We all are looped on Internet: request + transport = invariant

Joe wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> On Fri, 2007-04-20 at 12:14 +0100, Richard Huxton wrote:
>> I'm not sure that anyone is clear why you just don't write this as a 
>> simple php/perl/ruby/whatever script? There are libraries that will 
>> output XML for you in most of these I'd suspect, and if not it's just an 
>> afternoon's work.
>>
>> I mean, your application is written in *some* language, isn't it?
> 
> It appears that Dmitry wants that an application, written in whatever
> language, will issue an SQL query (or maybe a TML "query" such as
> "a.b.c") and get back the XML.  He's not concerned about loss of
> datatype information because from his perspective the application will
> just "present" the XML and similarly he's not concerned about DDL
> features because TML is a "transport" mechanism.
> 
> I hope I haven't totally misrepresented Dmitry's words, but it seems he
> wants to create a universal "database to web" interface language, so
> that you and I won't have to deal with the pesky complications of
> retrieving data in C with libpq or with PHP, Python and what not
> libraries or "adapters", and then have to transform that data for
> display to the user.

OK, but I'm still not seeing how this avoids me having to use 
PHP/Perl/etc anyway. I mean, I'm going to need some application logic at 
some point, in which case who cares whether the RDBMS has this specific 
layout as a format. I can see how it might be useful as a library, but 
then there are libraries that provide plenty of XML formatting.

--   Richard Huxton  Archonet Ltd