M. V. Leonov & S. D. Kuznetsov
The Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University, 119899 Moscow, Russia E-mail: leonowmw@cs.msu.su, kuznetsov@asm.org.
Software tools for the development of Internet-based applications (Web-servers, languages like PHP, DBMSs like MySQL, etc.) can be employed to develop programs for local use as well. We have worked in this field since 1999 and developed various tools for taxonomic research including a system for managing archives of scanned images, a CD-version of the taxonomic site on Umbelliferae plants, a program for the formatting of bibliographic references based on XML-representation, etc.
The XML-technology is, in many aspects, more natural for the representation of hierarchically organized taxonomic data than the relational model. However, XML database management systems are still in development. Besides, huge amounts of systematic data, necessary for everyday work, have already been stored in relational databases. It is expedient, therefore, to develop programs converting existing databases to XML-form and programs for working with XML documents. We have developed an XML-bases language, BTML, for the description of botanical monographs. To the best of our knowledge, XML-technologies have only been applied in big projects so far. Our approach is oriented to relatively small projects where independent views of various experts in the field can, and should, be taken into account. The project of the modernization of the taxonomic databases developed by the team headed by Professor Pimenov can be cited as an example.
Support: grant RFBR № 04-07-90303.