Rationale for using a relational database with SQL

• From: Serge van den Boom <svdb@stack.nl>
• Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:54:39 +0200 (CEST)
• To: public-webapps@w3.org
• Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.0906181152480.72203@toad.stack.nl>

Hi,

I understand that the API for persistent storage of structured data in
HTML 5 will be based on SQL, looking at the current working drafts.

Could anyone please give me or point me to the rationale for specifying
the use of a relational DBMS with SQL? It seems to me that an XML-based
DBMS with an XQuery/XSLT/XPath interface would be much more in line with
the other work of the W3C and WHATWG, as well as being more suitable for
the kind of structured data that will probably be stored the most. Why
introduce another distinct query language into the family of web
standards?

I understand that there are probably a lot more people familiar with SQL
than there are with XML/XQuery/XSLT/XPath, but you are specifying the
future of the web, not the past, right?

Was this a matter of some existing implementation being elevated to
standard, or are there actual advantages for chosing for SQL in
conjunction with a relational DBMS, which I haven't thought of?

Thanks,

Serge

Received on Monday, 22 June 2009 08:57:08 UTC