relational<-->XML translation: a Python specialty absorbed by a database?

[John Benson]

Hi, I've been looking at the "Oracle9 i Database New Features" guide, from
which I quote:

XML Generation
In response to the challenge of generating XML in bulk from a database, XML
generation capabilities have been moved into the database and application
server
kernels and made available as built-in SQL operators. The kernel proximity
of these
operators ensures massively sustainable throughputs, enough for the largest
content repositories or the busiest exchanges.

(end quote)

I've been quaffing the XML kool-aid recently and imagining that scripting
languages like Python would be key in moving data between relational
databases and the Web by doing XML translation. From the preceding quote, it
would appear that databases might be appropriating this task to some extent.

It's pretty obvious a few XML operators added to SQL (or SQL*Plus, in the
case of Oracle) may not seriously challenge the expressiveness of Python or
Java, but they may tend to shape XML requirements in the direction of
simplicity so that the maximum can be done by the database itself.

Comments?