Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!gateway.qm.apple.Com!Bob_Campbell.ZORRO
From: Bob_Campbell.ZORRO@gateway.qm.apple.Com (Bob Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Intelligent Databases
Message-ID: <5583@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 4 Dec 89 22:17:20 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 39
References:<4198@rtech.rtech.com> <7323@sybase.sybase.com> <4220@rtech.rtech.com> <7335@sybase.sybase.com>

In article <7335@sybase.sybase.com> tim@binky.sybase.com (Tim Wood) writes:
> Many abstract operations might be sufficiently handled in the 
presentation-level
> stuff running on the client.  Why burden the DBMS with these functions,
> especially if they are CPU intensive?  Then you could be stealing server
> cycles from bread-and-butter transactions.  I'm just not sure if ADT's 
> are closer to the front-end processing than to the data management, and
> more of a decision-support feature.  

I agree that in a few cases like Pictures and Sounds there is very little 
to do on the server that is useful.  However Abstract Data Types provide 
much more then just blob data storage.  I have always understood Abstract 
Data Types to include data encapsulation, which means that I can define a 
type called RsoundS which includes the raw sound, as well as other 
information like sound format, sound playing time, sound title, and 
description of the sound.  This data encapsulation provides information 
which is useful to the server when searching and sorting.  This 
information is specific to the Abstract Data Type and must be understood 
at the server level for the server to do intelligent queries.

All of the existing databases that I have used do not provide all of the 
primitive operations that I would like to use.  Neither Sybase or Ingres 
(or any of the few other databases) that I have used provide even what I 
consider the minimal subset of string matching operators.

All of my transactions are Rbread-and-butterS even if they are CPU 
intensive, after all we put the database on a big machine so that the 
smaller machines spend less time sorting and searching and more time 
interacting with the user.  If we have to retrieve large amounts of 
database and then filter them at the workstation then we might as well put 
the whole database on the workstation (and by the way neither Sybase nor 
Ingres runs on my Macintosh...).

I like what Ingres is doing with Abstract Data Types, and I hope that some 
of the other companies take a good look what they are doing.

I don't have a cute trailer**************
Applelink: BOBC (BOBC@Applelink.apple.com)
Quickmail: Bob Campbell@ZORRO (Bob_Campbell.ZORRO@gateway.qm.apple.com)


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