Re: Shared game-data (was: Storing data and code in a Db with LISP-like interface)
Date: 29 Apr 2006 17:51:54 -0700
Message-ID: <1146358314.919071.250340_at_v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>
Alvin Ryder wrote:
>
> In business systems it is desirable to normalize the data, lets just
> discuss first normal form, ...
Normalization is a data management technique, not a business application technique. If you had suggested that only business software could make use of integers, it would have been about as true.
> OTOH game objects contain some atomic types but they
> also contain pointers, other objects,
Pointers and objects are implementation techniques. They are software constructs completely divorced from any particular application domain. It is possible to build business systems with relations, or with OOP, and it is possible to build games with relations, or with OOP.
> trees, collections ... which is all very
> non-atomic and very non-normalized.
Trees and collections are in use in pretty much every possible kind of software application. Atomicity is a non issue; it's not clear why you even mention it. And nothing about trees or collections promotes denormalized data. A denormalized tree is subject to the same problems that a denormalized relation is subject to.
> The internals of a game are more like the internals of
> a wordprocessor or spreadsheet.
Word processors and spreadsheets do data management, and their implementations could really benefit by studying the data management field.
Marshall Received on Sun Apr 30 2006 - 02:51:54 CEST