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A relational database management system (RDBMS) is one that stores data
in such a manner that shows the relation between the data. For
instance, your database can have EMPLOYEES and DEPARTMENTS. Those can
be two tables in your database. There is a relation at play here as
well. An employee can work in a department. A department can have many
employees.
An XML-based DBMS is one that doesn't worry about relations. It stores
the data in the database in XML format. I'm not sure why anyone would
really want to do this. The XML format, by its very nature is
hierarchical. The industry has long-since moved away from hierarchical
database systems for many reasons (this is one reason why you don't see
ADABAS being used too much any more). To me, the move to XML-based DBMS
platforms is a step backwords.
The rules of normalization are written specifically for a RDBMS. As
such, they do not apply to non-RDBMS systems. While you can try to
extend these rules to XML-based systems, they won't be a perfect fit
for these systems.
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