XML again

[Husk.David]

I've recently joined this list and have scanned over the posts regarding XML.

First let me say that I have scientific background but for the last 9 year have
been in IT.

The reason that I'm looking over NeXus is that at NIEHS we are starting to put
together a project for scientific data archival and storage.  Probably on the
order of a few TB to start.  This biggest problem I see with the current data is
finding a way to index and search it.  Especially after it has been stored for a
few years in an archive.

XML because it is well defined, readable as text and rapidly becoming a standard
seems the format of choice.  It will be the basis of Microsoft's dot.net
initiative.  Apple uses it for the preference files in OSX.  Every major
database vender expects to have a native XML engine out by 2002-2003.
Bioinfomatics data is now mostly XML based.  Using DTD's and XML editors it is
possible to validate files and force them to be in a standard form that is
searchable/indexable.  For that matter quires can be made on XML data by outside
users just by supplying them the DTD and giving them access to the data.



So the question becomes will NeXus data anytime in the near future be XML based?
The data could still be mostly binary with an XML header see
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/04/20/010420hnxml.xml.  

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

David Husk
SysAdmin
NIEHS