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Re: [ontolog-forum] The Open Group SOA Ontology

To: edbark@xxxxxxxx, "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:47:25 -0400
Message-id: <487FBDED.7060107@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Ed,    (01)

I very strongly agree with that observation:    (02)

 > How many "computer science" students, I wonder, realize
 > that the amount of information of all kinds flowing thru
 > relational databases with SQL interfaces is thousands of
 > times the amount of information flowing in XML?  Or that
 > 90% of G8 manufacturers do a significant part of their
 > supply-chain work using EDI/EDIFACT messages?  Those
 > technologies have found their proper place, and have
 > reliable implementations.    (03)

There are numerous horror stories floating around about
pointy-haired bosses who bought the XML hype and converted
working relational DBs to XML.    (04)

One horrible example was a conversion of a 40,000 employee
personnel file from a relational DB to XML records.  But
the people who did the conversion forgot (or were never
taught) that relational databases have highly efficient
indexes on all the critical fields, but browser pages don't.    (05)

One hope was to offload processing to desktops, but the new
system brought the intranet to its knees by moving large
files back and forth, instead of just the selected data.
Furthermore, commercial DBs have a lot of protection for
sensitive data, but when it's downloaded to a browser on
a desktop, anyone with a modest amount of system knowledge
can do a lot of snooping.    (06)

In short, it was a disaster.  A lot of money went down the
toilet, many disgruntled employees didn't receive their
paychecks, and it took a lot of effort to restore the old
system, since the XML replacement didn't support checkpoints.    (07)

Bottom line:  XML was not designed for heavy-duty processing.
It is an *interchange* format, *from* which you move data in
order to do the high-performance computation.    (08)

John    (09)

PS:  The old "computer science" students actually learned
something.  The new "IT" students learn how to drag, drop,
and click, but know little or nothing about what goes on
under the covers.    (010)


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