Re: By The Dawn's Normal Light

From: Dawn M. Wolthuis <dwolt_at_tincat-group.comREMOVE>
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 13:04:18 -0500
Message-ID: <cle6fe$n87$1_at_news.netins.net>


"Kenneth Downs" <firstinit.lastname_at_lastnameplusfam.net> wrote in message news:oq4elc.8oa.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...
> Dawn M. Wolthuis wrote:
>
> > "Kenneth Downs" <firstinit.lastname_at_lastnameplusfam.net> wrote in
message
> > news:psqdlc.cs9.ln_at_mercury.downsfam.net...
> >> Dawn M. Wolthuis wrote:
> >>
> >> > gains in productivity are due exclusively to the data model. That
does
> >> > seem to me to be one significant component, however, which is why I
> >> > investigated why the entire profession seems to think that we ought
not
> >> > have embedded lists in our logical data models.
> >> >
> >>
> >> PostgreSQL supports arrays as a type. Does such qualify as an embedded
> >> list? If not, why not? Is it just about ordering?
> >
> > I played with PostgreSQL and it does give some of the advantages I was
> > looking for -- in particular, you can query the parent table and access
> > the child data without an explicit join in your query statement (or
view)
> > IIRC. After that, then, yes, having the database handle insertions and
> > removals from ordered lists is just another feature that would also be
> > helpful to
> > developers. And then there is the fact that I just really have not
found
> > any flavor of SQL to be delightful. --dawn
> >
> > --
> >> Kenneth Downs
> >> Use first initial plus last name at last name plus literal "fam.net" to
> >> email me
>
> So what tools are you using? I have been lurking in all of these
> normalization threads and it seems you are not using one of the big RDBMS
> systems. But you also state that you are able to make robust systems that
> satisfy users. So what are you using, if I may ask?

I've tried to back off being explicit about caring about the old-fashioned model I'm using. My interest is in the future. But since you asked and since I think it provides a lot of clues as a bridge to the future, I'll answer. I use IBM UniData or UniVerse, aka U2. These are clean room implementations of the developer and user interfaces to the Pick OS/database. These run in a p-code virtual machine (not unlike a jvm) and many large companies have many large applications running using these databases. I won't say that the Pick model, designed in the early to mid sixties, is the future, but when looking at where the industry should go from here, I'd rather start there and move forward and leave the big, bulky RDBMS's behind. smiles. --dawn

> --
> Kenneth Downs
> Use first initial plus last name at last name plus literal "fam.net" to
> email me
Received on Sat Oct 23 2004 - 20:04:18 CEST

Original text of this message