xs:gYear etc. datatypes

[Pavel Velikhov]

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Hi,

  We have incorporated support for all date/time datatypes into our DBMS, however the usage of xs:Year, xs:YearMonth, etc. datatypes seems to be extremelly limited. Neither accessor functions, nor comparison operators (except for equality) are supported on these datatypes. Are you planning to make these datatypes first-class citizens at some point in the future and will be going on the wrong track by adding accessor functions and comparisons for these datatypes in our system?

Thank you,
Pavel Velikhov
Sedna XML database team

[Michael Kay-3]

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We've deliberately tried to keep the function library small this time round, in the knowledge that it's easy to grow it later in response to real user demand, whereas it's impossible ever to take things out.

 

It wouldn't be conformant to add functions or operators for these types to your own implementation unless you did it using the defined extension mechanisms in the language (e.g. you can define your own functions in your own namespace).

 

For XSLT 1.0 there's a set of vendor-neutral extension functions specified at www.exslt.org - these have the advantage that vendors can pick and choose which of them they think are worth implementing, but if several vendors implement the same function then they are portable across implementations. It would be nice to see this kind of mechanism used for the kind of extensions you are proposing.

 

I think most people on the WG felt that providing full support for the xs:gYear family of types was over the top.

 

Michael Kay

http://www.saxonica.com/

(personal response)

---

From: www-ql-request@... [mailto:www-ql-request@...] On Behalf Of Pavel Velikhov
Sent: 05 June 2006 13:51
To: www-ql@...
Subject: xs:gYear etc. datatypes

Hi,

  We have incorporated support for all date/time datatypes into our DBMS, however the usage of xs:Year, xs:YearMonth, etc. datatypes seems to be extremelly limited. Neither accessor functions, nor comparison operators (except for equality) are supported on these datatypes. Are you planning to make these datatypes first-class citizens at some point in the future and will be going on the wrong track by adding accessor functions and comparisons for these datatypes in our system?

Thank you,
Pavel Velikhov
Sedna XML database team