ORA-FO-195-E: what is the status of xdt:dayTimeDuration and xdt:yearMonthDuration?

SECTION 17.1: casting from primitive types to primitive types

I have heard it said that xdt:dayTimeDuration and 
xdt:yearMonthDuration are to be treated as if they
were primitive types.  The fact that they are listed in 
this section seems to put them on a par with the primitive
types, but you don't actually say so.

If this is the intention, it would be better to adopt some
other term than "primitive".  Lincoln once asked, how many
legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg?  Answer:
four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.  Just
the same, calling a derived type a primitive type just
shows that there is sone confusion about the distinction between
the two categories.  My thesaurus gives the following 
synonyms for primitive that you might consider:
basic, elementary, primary.  


- Steve B.

Received on Tuesday, 17 February 2004 13:32:51 UTC