this author has made a compelling argument and one I am excited to see written. I think it's time more people challenged the conventional wisdom that XML should be applied wherever possible, whether it adds value or not.

I think like most technologies one must separate the good from the hype. With XML the "hype" slice of the pie seems to be proporationally bigger than with most technologies and I think a lot of people implementing it are doing it for the wrong reasons.

Case in point - I have customers who call me to ask why I am not storing relational data in XML format in a SQL Server database for my SQLAudit product. Rather than try to reinvent the theory of a relational database I attempt to glean the source of the questiion and turn it around - "Why *would* I store relational data in XML format in SQL Server?" and I just get silence. In one case the answer was that Yukon was going to offer an XML datatype and it would "improve performance" ??? the source of these queries usually are traced back to some software vendors trying to jump on the XML hype bandwagon and leverage XML "buzzword" purely for marketing purposes. They interact with customers and put the XML bug in their brain and the next thing you know you are defending proper database design against designs that violate almost every basic rule of relational database modeling. Is it XML's fault that it's being used improperly - no - but it's up to people like this author to clarify it's proper role in the universe and point out that it isn't a panacea and often is the wrong choice.

good job!

Brian Lockwood

LockwoodTech Software - value added SQL tools

http://www.lockwoodtech.com