Re: PSQL suggested enhancement

On Thu, Oct 20, 2005 at 09:28:25AM -0700, Dean Gibson (DB Administrator) wrote:
> I just find it surprising that XML is not one of the formats provided,
> considering that XML is considered a data interchange format (much more
> than HTML, which is a representation format).

All jokes aside, saying "output to XML" is like saying "all our
documentation will use words from the english dictionary". Yes, you
made a constraint but until you decide grammer, syntax and style, you
havn't decided anything yet.

Realistically, psql is only ever going to support one XML format, we
can't add more styles every time someone asks for one. Hence, we should
pick the one that is going to be most easily loaded into other programs
(the entire point of XML, right?). To that end, we should probably aim
for something like the OpenDocument table format, which looks a bit
like below. At least that way you stand a chance of being able to
import it and/or display it.

At least, unless someone has some better idea? Outputting complete
gnumeric spreadsheets is going a bit far, no?

Have a nice day,

<office:body>
<office:spreadsheet>
<table:table table:name="TableName">
<table:table-header-rows>
<table:table-row>
<table:table-cell table:style-name="heading">
<text:p>Last Name</text:p>
</table:table-cell>
...for each column...
</table:table-row>
</table:table-header-rows>
<table:table-row>
<table:table-cell office:value-type="float" office:value="$value">
<text:p>$value</text:p>
</table:table-cell>
</table:table-row>
...for each row and column...
</table:table>
</office:spreadsheet>
</office:body>

--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> Patent. n. Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A patent is a
> tool for doing 5% of the work and then sitting around waiting for someone
> else to do the other 95% so you can sue them.