Re: Nearest Common Ancestor Report (XDb1's $1000 Challenge)

From: Neo <neo55592_at_hotmail.com>
Date: 22 May 2004 15:40:42 -0700
Message-ID: <4b45d3ad.0405221440.22d42241@posting.google.com>

> Now please tell me why a user who wants to name a dog 'john' would first
> enter its name as 'fido' and then change the name later?

You are technically correct. Here are the steps to enter a dog whose name is 'john' right from the start of his instantiation.

god isa thing.
force isa thing.
army isa force.
church isa thing.
trinity isa church.
person isa thing.

john isa person.
mary isa person.
luke isa person.

age isa thing.
35 isa age.
john is 35.
weight isa thing.
130 isa weight.
mary is 130.
color isa thing.
red isa color.
luke is red.
dog isa thing.
* isa dog.
  (Note: '*' tells XDb1's to create an unnamed instance and '*' can    be used in later statements to refer to the last unnamed instance.    To name the new instance, click on it twice with a small delay    to enter edit mode. Type in 'john' and press enter.    Note2: The version you have has a bug and does not process    "*'s name is john." correctly. It has been corrected in newer ver.) computer isa thing.
laptop1 isa computer.
army leader god.
trinity leader god.
john leader army.
mary leader army.

mary leader trinity.
luke leader trinity.
laptop1 leader john.
laptop1 leader mary.
* leader john.

* leader mary.
* leader luke.

Currently XDb1's NLI is quite incomplete. For many operations, user must use GUI or API. My goal isn't to demo NLI/GUI's limited strengths and many weakness, but that data can be represented in a highly normalized and generic manner and that it can be processed quickly especially when the equivalent data/schema is spread out over several tables in RM.

Thus, while the db created in XDb1 allows things to have the same name (right from the start) and the provided db doesn't, it is not as generic of a solution. But I know you could make it more generic so a fairer comparision can be made. Received on Sat May 22 2004 - 17:40:42 CDT