Re: ZNG dicussion

To reiterate/clarify my position... (All below should be prefixed with 'In
my opinion' and 'If I recall correctly' :) )

> * ZNG and its alternatives
> You can also use OAI or SQL (Sanderson).
> There was a discussion on using XER to encode protocol messages (Futrelle,
> Sanderson)

ZNG is OAI plus Search.  OAI is specifically designed not to require a
search function as it's a harvest server. It does what it is designed to
do, arguably very well.

SQL is much more well known than any other query language. It has a lot of
different implementations. (Postgres, MS, My etc)  There is a much wider
user base, and many more applications that integrate.  See also recent
search+sort encapsulation thread.  If there's nothing left of Z in ZNG
it's unnecessary, or at least not ZIG material.

While I am not against Z taking up recent technologies (eg XER/SOAP/etc) I
am against reducing it to the level of OAI.

> * Sessions
> Sanderson thinks that ZNG underestimates the disadvantages of not having a
> session.

See the Cookies and Authentication hassles in HTTP.  Resultsets are often
unimplemented currently -with- sessions.

> * Dropping scan?
> Van Lierop is against dropping Scan.
Ditto.

> * Query language

Discussion between Sanderson and LeVan as to how the query could be
encoded using forms as opposed to a query language.
Sanderson's position was that Explain(/Lite) could be used to auto
generate a form to be filled out, rather than making people use another
arbitrary query language.  The resulting query does not have to be human
readable as it could be easily generated with ECMAscript (etc)

Rob

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Received on Wednesday, 26 September 2001 09:25:55 UTC