Re: Parallel execution: functions, XPath, XQuery,

Dear Ken, 

This is a response to the following message, 
which you posted to the XML Query Working 
Group's comments list: 
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-query-comments/2001May/0032.htm
l>

The XML Query Working Group has approved the
following response: 

The XML Query working group is entitled, according
to its charter, to define a declarative query language
for XML data, i.e. to formally define the syntax and
the semantics of such queries. However, our charter
does not entitle us to define or propose evaluation
algorithms for XML queries. 

It is indeed one of our requirements to make sure that
XML queries expressed in this language are optimizable,
i.e. it is possible in find efficient evaluation algorithms 
in various hardware and software environments. But it is not
our task to propose such algorithms. Each particular vendor 
and implementer of the query language should be free to use the
evaluation algorithms that best fits his/her context, as long as
it respects the correct Xquery semantics. 

As you correctly point out, it is possible that Xquery queries
will be often evaluated in a parallel or distributed environment.
We strongly encourage researchers, vendors and implementers to
search for optimal algorithms adapted to such contexts.

We appreciate your feedback on the XML Query specifications
. Please let us know if this response is satisfactory. If not,
please respond to this message, explaining your concerns. 

Dana Florescu 
On behalf of the XML Query Working Group

Received on Wednesday, 27 June 2001 11:32:43 UTC