XML, etc. [was Re: a grandiose but (hopefully) practical idea]

[Robert A. (Bob) Morris]

Doug Yanega writes:
 > Date:         Wed, 14 Mar 2001 17:51:27 -0800
 > From: Doug Yanega <dyanega at pop.ucr.edu>
 > To: TAXACOM at usobi.org
 > Subject:      XML, etc. [was Re: a grandiose but (hopefully) practical idea]
 >...

 > In case it wasn't clear: SEARCHING databases and generating on-screen
 > reports is not the issue - for a taxonomist that might be enough in many
 > cases, but for a museum person doing a specimen-based inventory or species
 > list, the only practical approach to taxonomic authority data is to have
 > the entire database on one's own computer, so taxonomic lookups can be
 > *automated*. I can enter a species and my database automatically fills in
 > all the hierarchical data up to order; but that procedure only works if I
 > have the hierarchical data already on my computer, NOT if the data is on a
 > website. I need authority file downloads.

This is a statement about your database, not about software in
general. It is perfectly possible to write interesting database
applications that can not tell the difference between local and
network accessible files. In particular it is completely possible to
fetch taxonomy hierarchy---or anything else that might be offered by
remote sites--automatically. See for example the links about database
federation at http://www.cs.umb.edu/efg/xml1/ram/xmldemos.html. Those
applications examine static pages for species names and queries
taxonomy servers for the full taxonomy. The control software is
Javascript and since these are demos, we did not take the time to make
them work in Netscape, but only in MSIE, but the underlying queries
are http cgi so could be made by any interface, whether browser
mediated or not.

Practicality arguments will come down to several things:

-whether you and the remote server have the network bandwidth to accomplish what
you want to do in the time you want to do it

-whether you can get an application smart enough to find and query
remote databases

What you get in exchange for what distributed queries may cost you in
a given circumstance is that your data is by definition always
current.

Bob Morris



 >
 > Don't get me wrong: I think folks have done some great things - but there's
 > a lot yet to be done in making data *available* to everyone, and until
 > something changes, I'm for file-swapping. Beats cutting and pasting from
 > screen reports.
 >
 > Peace,
 >
 >
 > Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
 > Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
 > phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
 >            http://entmuseum9.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
 >   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
 >         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
 >