NYCPHP Meetup

[Jeremy Mcentire]

>> Of course, if you really want to rock, try combining XQuery+XQueryP 
>> +APP+a native XML database. Once the tooling matures a bit, that's  
>> a stack that's going to make all previous web dev frameworks look  
>> like PowerBuilder.
>
> Not a chance.  There is no such thing as a native XML database and  
> there never will be because XML is a file format (oops, data  
> format), and an extremely inefficient one at that.  To have a  
> native database you need a data model.  XML uses the hierarchical  
> model and if you're going to build a native hierarchical database  
> you sure wouldn't use the wasteful XML format internally to store  
> the data.
>
> And if you insist on using XML just because its so wonderful to use  
> 17 characters to store the state <STATE>NY</STATE>, it will never  
> be able to compete with even the most immature relational engines  
> for pure speed.  Maybe on example and toy sites, but never for  
> anything that needs to scale.

By that argument, the current RDBMS use 7 characters to store a state:
StateNY.

Of course, we'd use the same for an XML-based DBMS for storage with  
logic that constructs:
<STATE>NY</STATE> upon request.  Since, we all know that the state  
code requires some extra characters so that the DBMS could organize  
it.  A file with no meta-data that said: NYMONJOKTXAZCA wouldn't make  
much sense, would it?