Re: PSQL suggested enhancement

On Thursday, October 20, 2005 1:01 PM, Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:

> 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.

If pg outputs a simple xml format, it can easily be transformed via xslt
into OpenDoc table format, alternate html formats, or the alternate xml
format of your choice.

I would argue against outputting this one specific OpenDoc format,
even though it is the "flavor of the month" right now.

-Roger