On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Joe Landman wrote: > On Thu, 2004-03-18 at 04:46, Dan Bolser wrote: > > > > > But what is the point in creating biological data in this form, when the > > > > 'data model' is basically our own concept about the data? > > > > > > One of these days someone is going to extend Go"del's incompleteness > > > proof for biological systems. > > > > > > I wish someone would tell the physicists about it :) every time I see a > > show about GUT I think Godel must be hopping mad! > > :) Careful, you might be speaking to one right now, and not even know > it. But are GUT's impossible according to Godel? That working on a GUT is a waste of time or not is a different question. I take your point that the activity alone can be very usefull without hope of sucess (like the search for the philosophers stone). > > Of course, we have wandered OT here. ;) sci.physics.research ? > > > > Wouldn't a SwissProt RDB be much more sensible than an XML document? > > > > > > Only if the Swissprot never changes format. The whole point of XML is > > > the "X". Extensible. If you want to integrate portions of Swissprot > > > into your own research DB, you can do this, but you would either have to > > > deal with the Swissprot normalization model, or datamart the swissprot > > > and create your own normalization . > > > > > > Sure, but you have to understand the structure of the XML document just as > > much as you would need to understand the data model of the RDB. Data > > models do change, and you have to change code. Are you saying that > > changing the structure of XML has less impact on the whole system? I guess > > this is *the* reason people talk about XML. > > Basically. Once you have a parser for XML, it should (if it is working > properly) parse *any* XML. So your structure can change, or your > information can change without altering your code for the most part. Well, I will take your word for it! Cheers, Dan. > > Joe > > _______________________________________________ > Biodevelopers mailing list > Biodevelopers at bioinformatics.org > https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/biodevelopers >