Re: different explain-lite comment

At 10:42 24-11-00 +1100, Alan Kent wrote:

>But I struggle to make arguments I feel are convincing even to myself.
>I think numeric USE attributes are so deep seated that its not even
>worth thinking about changing it unless Z39.50V4 came along with a
>radical revamp of the protocol. So I probably should not have sent
>this email! :-)

Beg to differ. V3 allows string-form attribute values, and with the 
attribute set architecture we can have (string) attribute values that are 
directly tied to the retrieval schema. As I recall, you can even give 
hierarchical attributes. For XML-oriented databases the implications should 
be obvious. No need to wait for V4.

Mind you, to promote interoperabilty across domains, I still think there's 
a lot to be said for good old attribute sets with retrieval-independent 
access points.

--Sebastian
--
Sebastian Hammer        <quinn@indexdata.dk>            Index Data ApS
Ph.: +45 3341 0100    <http://www.indexdata.dk>    Fax: +45 3341 0101

Received on Thursday, 23 November 2000 19:15:18 UTC