"Any sufficiently complex program reinvents the DB"

Post #41,184 by tablizer 6/4/02 7:23:44 PM Reply	"Any sufficiently complex program reinvents the DB" How about select * from myList where x > 0 Or XBase: use myList set filter to x > 0 Smalltalk fans seem to delight in reinventing the database. However, the drawback of ST databases is that it is hard to share the data with other languages in real-time and you have to roll-your-own services like backups, contention management, etc. ________________ oop.ismad.com
Post #41,859 by tuberculosis 6/10/02 4:38:27 PM Reply	Proper abstraction Makes the same action work on both a database or in memory data store. So you use the same actions on both. So on one hand I sort of agree with you - set operations are lacking from most collections libraries and this is sad since they are so useful in databases - OTOH, I view the db itself as implementation detail - maybe the data is persistent in a database or maybe its some stuff I happen to have in memory and I don't need to save. I don't care. So long as I have powerful set operations that work on the tuples in the collections. The average hunter gatherer works 20 hours a week. The average farmer works 40 hours a week. The average programmer works 60 hours a week. What the hell are we thinking?
Post #41,991 by tablizer 6/11/02 5:05:52 PM Reply	Persistence is not the main issue (* OTOH, I view the db itself as implementation detail - maybe the data is persistent in a database or maybe its some stuff I happen to have in memory and I don't need to save. I don't care. So long as I have powerful set operations that work on the tuples in the collections. *) Databases are about managing collections, period. Whether you save them or not is another matter. (Vendor support for virtual or temp tables varies. That is not my fault.) Anyhow, as long as you don't distinguish between "types" of collections, then we are pretty much saying the same thing. Whether we store the collection or keep it in a temporary buffer only (such as RAM) is also an "implementation detail". One should not have to alter their collection interface if they decide to "save" a collection for whatever reason, and visa versa (beyond setting an attribute or two).

Welcome to IWETHEY!