Content Based Addressing

The first time I ever saw an index to a body of data (a file of flat records, to be specific), I thought it was a kludge. I figured this sort of thing would last a few years until somebody built a cheap, fast, and ample associative memory. Here it is, 30 years later, and indexes are still with us.

Anyways, I'm starting this thread with the idea of discussing content based addressing. Basically, content based addressing says, "I don't know where it is, but when you find it, this is what it's going to look like". This description is intentionally vague.

I want it to cover search engines that invert some body of text, as well as indexes that permit keyed access to certain rows in a table.

The whole idea of content based addressing seems to me to be such a powerful idea that it keeps popping up in IT all over the place. Of course, in c.d.t. the RDM is going to be the first thing most people think of when they ponder content based addressing.

But RDM isn't the only place where content based addressing is useful.

I was intrigued with the idea that the index "is" the database, over in another discussion. I'm even more intrigued with the idea that the log is the database.

Anyways, I think that content based addressing is a large part of why so many people have used RDM and/or SQL to good advantage in making flexible use of data.

Other opinions welcome. Received on Tue May 16 2006 - 16:00:19 CDT