[tmql-wg] Result set requirements

[Rani Pinchuk]

> | Another issue is the generation of XML (or other textual
> | presentation of the results) - there are in different environments
> | different ways to generate XML out of data structures. Why TMQL
> | should add its own way of generating XML - does that mean that the
> | TMQL way is better then the other ways (so people should spend time
> | learning how to use that part of TMQL to generate their XML
> | results)?
> 
> The reason to include this in TMQL is basically that this will be a
> very common usage of TMQL, and that if we don't standardize this what
> will happen is that everyone will create non-standard mechanisms for
> turning TMQL query results into XML/text/HTML. If that happens those
> building applications with TMQL will not really be much closer to
> interoperability between implementations than they are today.
> 
> Also, it's not that the TMQL way of generating XML will necessarily be
> any better than other ways of generating XML, it's just that it will
> be tailored towards dealing with TMQL result sets. Other ways of
> generating XML can't be, simply because they won't be designed
> specifically for TMQL.

I am not so sure about this point - it might be true that the standard
should guide the users how to create those formats - so to avoid a
situation where as you write "everyone will create non-standard
mechanisms for turning TMQL query results into XML/text/HTML". 

I would prefer, though, that this will be outside of TMQL - results from
SQL can also be turned into XML in non standard mechanisms. So maybe
there should be other standard for generating textual formats like XML
text of HTML from data.

I am also not sure about the special case of TMQL result sets - those
will be after all scalars and structures - and there are many
applications that might have scalars and structures that should be
turned into XML/text/HTML. As long as this XML/text/HTML is not special
for TMQL, I don't see the advantage of having the definition of
generating that format within TMQL. 

So actually I still think that the advantage of having TMQL simpler is
more beneficial here then introducing the ability to generate textual
formats from the results.

Rani

-- 
Rani Pinchuk
Software Engineer
Space Applications Services
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