[Biodevelopers] RDBMS and Bioinformatics

[Dan Bolser]

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Michel Dumontier wrote:

> >
> > Same goes for BIND, they plan to use RDB, but not in a conventional way
> > (so far as I understand).
> >
> 
> 
> BIND (http://bind.ca) stores bind-objects based on ASN.1 specification
> (ftp://ftp.blueprint.org/pub/BIND/spec/, also available as XML DTD and
> Schema), as ASN.1/XML in BLOB fields in the database table.  BIND makes use
> of field-specific indexing to be able to search for any particular object or
> set of objects that match the search criteria.  The relational aspect is
> really more for curatorial work and tracking, afaik...


So it wont be like an XML query system? Sorry if I misunderstand, but it
sounds like you just do plain text index on an XML blob, but is is more
than that?

Generally, can anyone tell me  what is the point of XML schema when
relational schema have existed for years with well understood maths, query
language and theories of relational design? I understand XML as a
transport medium, but why make it the basis for your object model over the
RDB relational schema? Perhaps object orented datamodeling can do things
relational modeling can't, but at what cost? I hate sounding old, but what
was wrong with the RDB that we have to invent X-path and the like?

Anyone on the list remember when relational databases were 'the new
thing'?

Dan.

> 
> Michel Dumontier
> PhD Candidate
> Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mt. Sinai Hospital
> Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto
> Toronto, ON M5G1X5
> micheld at mshri.on.ca
> http://blueprint.org
> 
> 
> 
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