Re: Flat Query

"David Cressey" <david.cressey_at_earthlink.net> writes:
> Good Summary.
>
> About the only place I still see the argument between exposed
> pointers and indexes is... right here in the comp.databases.theory
> newsgroup, where our resident gadfly is still trying to persuade us
> to go back to pointers, and start over!
>
> Branching off on a tangent... By collecting all the pointers in
> indexes, and putting them under control of a subsystem of the DBMS,
> it becomes possible to move a table (perhaps to another disk), and
> update all the pointers in the indexes that need it.
>
> By contrast, in the World wide web, there is, in general, no way of
> knowing how many hyperlinks will be broken if an object is moved
> from one URL to another, or how to fix them. People seem to be
> willing to live with this decifiency, but I suspect that their
> patience will eventually run out.

i wonder ... do i have on archived post on this topic from last decade
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#26 Misc. more on bidirectional links

except this involved network database where all the links/pointers were implemented as indexes (abstracted pointers into indexes somewhat analogous to what was done by system/r ... the original implementation was going on concurrently with the system/r implementation on the same system platform) ... and enforced bidirectional "connections", getting referrential integrity ... and also addressed the www unidirectional issue.

some minor historical regression ...

the html stuff traces back to waterloo's script implementation ... aka cern was a vm/cms shop ... and waterloo's script is clone of the cms script document formating command done at the cambridge science center
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

in fact, cms used to stand for cambridge monitor system ... before it was renamed conversational monitor system. gml was invented at the science center in 69 and support added to script command (aka gml is from "G", "M", and "L", the three inventors ... then had to come up with the markup language part):
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#sgml

and system/r
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#systemr

was also a vm/cms implementation.

and of course, hyperlink stuff traces back to Nelson's xanadu http://www.xanadu.net/

how about: WWW, what went wrong
http://xanadu.com.au/xanadu/6w-paper.html

and Engelbart's nls/augment
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/dce-bio.htm

from above ...

In 1977 Tymshare bought the commercial rights to NLS, renamed it AUGMENT, and set it up as a principal line of business in a newly formed Office Automation Division. There the focus switched from R&D to commercialization, and in spite of Engelbart's efforts, the human/organizational work was cut off, including his carefully cultivated user group. In 1984 Tymshare was acquired by McDonnell Douglas Corporation, where Engelbart began working closely with the aerospace components on issues of integrated information system architectures and associated evolutionary strategies (a welcome extension of his work at SRI).

... snip ..

... tymshare was a couple miles up the road from sjr. for the M/D purchase ... i was brought in to do due dilligence on gnosis which had been developed by tymshare and was being spun off as keykos
http://www.agorics.com/Library/keykosindex.html http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~KeyKOS/

-- 
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/