From: AC
To: Editor

Date: 07/27/2003

 

You are frequently fond of referring to a new technology that will truly implement RDBMS theory.  I came across this product the other day, and I found its combative tone intriguing and more than a little annoying:

Freedom

 

With Prevalence we are finally free to create true object servers and use objects the way they were intended all along.

 

We are able to use any algorithm, data-structure and query language we please. We are no longer constrained to the ones provided by database and application servers which must run on disk data-blocks.

 

We believe the whole OO community is finally free to recover from the atrophy caused by database and application server restraints. We no longer have to distort and maim our object models to satisfy their limitations.

 

We no longer have DBAs imposing us database layout restrictions. We have freed them to do something more useful.

 

We have set fire to the table-models on our walls. We have deleted our database creation scripts. We no longer have to keep them updated.

 

We no longer have to license, install, configure and maintain a database and application server every single time we want to develop, demonstrate or deploy our systems for any of our clients. Give us a Java VM and we are good to go.

 

I think the most interesting thing about this site is that there is almost no mention of tedious things like data integrity.  By default there is no rollback support--their assumption is that programmers will check all possible conditions that might cause a transaction to fail, so there is no need to recover data inconsistencies from a failed transaction.

Of course, any critique we might care to offer will simply be written off as "an emotional attachment to RDBMS".

From: Fabian Pascal

To: AC

 

This should not surprise anybody; it's the logical conclusion in an anti-intellectual system that punishes knowledge and rewards ignorance. The completely ignorant are free of any constraints in their own undeveloped “minds” and the whole society--which prides itself on efficiency and progress--pays the price for violating those constantly. The industry has been regressing back to the stone-age of programs and files for quite a while now.

 

 

Posted 10/03/03

 

 

 

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