This isn't a Perl question but more of an XML and it's usage question however it applies here...read on:

Maybe it's me...I'm reading a lot these days about XML and the great things that you can do with it FOR WEB CONTENT...but I'm seeing a large trend (here at perlmonks and abroad) toward generating XML databases and I keep thinking to myself, "Why?". I've played around with a XML database I created and thought, "Heeey, thaat's greeaat...but damn that's a lot of work to generate".

Look, every time you start a new 'record' you need to wrap each 'record' and 'field' in a 'header' and then properly close it. This is a great deal of additional data that could just be omitted if the data was placed into a standard database table.

So my question is...well..."Why do it?". I really haven't seen anything out there that really justifies using XML as a database (...just because you can do it doesn't nessecarily mean you should...).

Please enlighten me if I'm wrong or jump on my soapbox (or both..it's a big box).

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Sean Shrum
http://www.shrum.net