Subj : XML
To   : Jan Vermeulen
From : Jesper Sörensen
Date : Sun Jan 05 2003 09:24 pm

 js>> With some work, the nodelist can be imported into e.g. a database
 js>> table, but handling the diffs is very difficult.

 JV>     Deleting and adding records was already possible with DBASE1 at
 JV> the Jet Propulsion Laberatory, so I do not see what would be the
 JV> problem, unless you spread your fields all over the place.

The problem is how do you know what data to add, update or delete? The diffs 
don't say "add 2:204/255..."; they say "copy (ignore) 17 lines", "delete 3 
lines", "add the following 4 lines" and so on, so you still need to have the 
original nodelist to be able to resolve the diff into something useful. :-(

 JV>     Sure. Bytes 0x20 thru 0x7F plus EOF. We'll tackle your name later
 JV> ;-)

Is that a promise? ;-)

Besides, I'm far from the only one with this problem. I'm just the loudest 
one... :-) The Swedish RC (Göran Eriksson), the Norwegian RC (Torbjørn Mohn) 
and the Danish RC (Kåre Olsen) all have the same problem, but they have 
accepted their "fate" and live quietly in this sad 7-bit land. ;-)

Maybe there are not that many people in Fidonet using the Greek, Arab or Hebrew 
alphabets but there sure are a lot of people using Cyrillic characters, and 
then we have the CJK-scripts in Z6, so seven bits doesn't quite suffice...

 JV>     If you want to write code for the net, you first should look at
 JV> what the net needs and will able to use; your joy should come from a
 JV> job well done, not of the coding itself. That is very much secondary.

Sure, but for me a "job well done" doesn't only mean that it works. It should 
be simple, logical, elegant and neat too, and bending, twisting and inventing 
new kludges doesn't fit very well into that. :-(

  Jesper,
  yeppe@enjoy.cc
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 * Origin: Singularity/2 - Swedish Internet Backbone (2:204/255)

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