Re: resolution of the inside/outside RDBMS dichotomy (was Re: Some Hype on "new" databases)
Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 20:07:19 GMT
Message-ID: <Xd9fe.7448$V01.1872_at_newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>
"mountain man" <hobbit_at_southern_seaweed.com.op> wrote in message
news:bxUde.2027$31.360_at_news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> "Kenneth Downs" <knode.wants.this_at_see.sigblock> wrote in message
> news:u69kk2-v82.ln1_at_pluto.downsfam.net...
> > Be warned, don't read this one on a full stomach:
> >
> > http://www.acmqueue.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=293
>
>
> Despite poor reviews by others, I thought the article
> highlighted some fundamental operational concerns
> that are probably outside the current paddock of theory.
>
>
> ...[trim]...
>
>
> > Perhaps this is the most fascinating, with the admission that there is
no
> > general solution for workflows:
> >
> > "The key question facing researchers is how to structure workflows.
> > Frankly,
> > a general solution to this problem has eluded us for several decades.
> > Because of the current immediacy of the problem, however, we can expect
to
> > see plenty of solutions in the near future. Out of all that, some clear
> > design patterns are sure to emerge, which should then lead us to the
> > research challenge: characterizing those design patterns."
>
>
> The obvious problem here is that there does yet yet exist a
> recognised theory in which the organisation has its place. I
> am confident that this will soon emerge from an extention of
> the relational model of the data in which the data (at long
> last) is perceived to be OWNED (always) by an
> organisation and the valid latent implications are resolved.
>
>
>
> That what is being modelled is organisational data in every
> single instance not only of modelling, but all phases from
> conception through to implementation, maintenance and
> development of a production system.
>
> At that stage, (generic) organisational structure will be
> examined and found to be amenable to simple forms and
> tables, and once this point is reached, you already have
> the workgroups for which work-flow have atomic meaning,
> context and operation.
>
>
> Here in the final section of that article is the sentence that
> interested me the most (re: future developments)
>
> "The beauty of this, of course, is that the whole
> inside-the-database/outside-the-database dichotomy
> that we've been wrestling with over these past 40 years
> is becoming a thing of the past."
>
> I have already made some comments on this aspect
> of the field, in threads with a subject's related to the
> word "internalisation" or "internalization" last year.
>
>
>
> You see, in 2001 I created a tool (not called Andomeda
> but "LittleSteps") by which I resolve this dichotomy by
> obviating the environment outside the database. Apps
> are developed in SQL alone and stored inside the rdbms
> as stored procedures, managed by a menu stored proc
> that has reference to an organisational structure table
> and the application register (all the defined procs).
>
> SP's may be easily "chained" together to provide n-level
> drill down functionality from summaries, to intermediate
> summaries, to detail, to history, to logs, when required,
> so the solutions are very very sophisticated but very
> simple with bare-bones minimal of moving parts.
>
> There is no code external to the database in this solution
> except for the Littlesteps tool, which is best described as
> rdbms portal software providing a service level interface
> between the RDBMS and the end user in a workgroup
> within an organisation.
>
> The application software is delivered as a database.
> Total development work is within SQL and the data.
> Nothing exists external to the RDBMS except this tool.
>
>
> Since 2001 I have been selling solutions using the tool
> as my business in Australia, and it has done well for the
> small amount of time and effort that I have invested.
>
>
> Thanks for the reference, but we in Australia have
> often gone onwards to future solutions oblivious to the
> rest of the world resident in the antipodes ;-)
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Pete Brown
> Falls Creek
> Oz
> www.mountainman.com.au/software
>
>
>
>
>
Received on Sat May 07 2005 - 22:07:19 CEST