[CQ-Contest] XML Contest File Standard Discussion

[Lyndon Nerenberg]

--On 2004-4-13 6:24 AM -0700 Lee Buller <k0wa at swbell.net> wrote:

> I was looking for an easy way
> to import files into a SQL database and MySQL will import XML files
> along with others as well.

Okay Lee, now I understand your request.

> (I am too cheap to buy programming software)

Sounds like you are stuck with Windows. Check out Cygwin 
(www.cygwin.com). This gives you a very complete POSIX environment, 
including a C compiler and a variety of text processing tools (grep, 
awk, sed) at no cost.

> It just seems to me that the world is going XML and maybe ham radio
> should be too.

Not really. Choose the tool because it is suited to the job, and not 
because it's what you saw advertised on TV. Simple is best. XML is a 
complex beast, and while it's useful for some tasks, it's overkill for 
many things.

>  Of course we would all have to agree on the
> definitions.  It seems to me that XML files make sense to the world
> wide community of hams since it is becoming a datafile standard.

I wouldn't call it a "datafile standard" as such. It's more of a data 
exchange format.

Going back to your original quest -- importing log data into an SQL 
database -- you have many options besides XML. I use a very simple 
line-oriented text file format with ':' delimited fields to store my 
log data. A set of simple awk scripts lets me search my log data, print 
labels, etc. No monster databases required, and my lookups are easily 
100 times faster than an SQL query would be.

When we did the web-based log query system for VK0IR (the granddaddy of 
them all), the first implementation was a database running under 
Windows. Within hours (minutes, in fact) of the start of the 
expedition, the Windows box had crashed due to the load of 2-3 queries 
per second via the web server. The ISP shut the web pages down. I 
re-implemented it as a 30 line shell script using awk to query a text 
file format almost identical to what I use now. On a screaming fast 
DX2-66 you couldn't even tell it was running.

Ignore the marketing folks. Buy a good book on programming tools and go 
exploring ...  (This is the Amateur *Experimental* Service, remember? 
:-)

--lyndon (VE6BBM/MM)