Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!bmartin
From: bmartin@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Brian Martin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: 4th Dimension & Networking over the phone
Message-ID: <10599@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 11 Dec 90 11:53:47 GMT
References: <1CE00001.i42wj1@tbomb.ice.com>
Reply-To: bmartin@uhccux.UUCP (Brian Martin)
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 40

In article <1CE00001.i42wj1@tbomb.ice.com> time@tbomb.ice.com writes:
>
>In article <10559@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>, bmartin@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Brian Martin) writes:
>> 4D downloads all 70,000 records (about 7,000,000 bytes) from the
>> fileserver to your machine, and does the entire search on your
>> machine.  Guess how long it takes to download 7MB, even at 38,000 baud?
>> 
>
>I know this sounds stupid... But...
>Really?!?!
>
>That sounds like the dumbest design I have ever heard of. What the
>hell good is a server that does compute?
>
Tim,

In a client/server design, the client program you are running on your
mac submits request to a data server. The data server runs on another
computer, and carriers out all requests submitted by all clients.  The
result of the request is then transmitted back to the client.  The
client never directly accesses the data file.

In a file server approach, which is the model that 4D uses, there are
no clients. Each mac has its own copy of 4D. Each copy of 4D "shares"
its data file with other copies of 4D on the network. And each copy of
4D actually performs the query/insert/delete operations that would have
been performed by the single data server described above. Sounds silly,
but that's how 4D works.

Best regards,

    Brian K. Martin, M.D.
    1103 9th Avenue, Suite 203
    Honolulu, Hawai`i 96816-2403
    Voice (808) 733-2003
    Fax (808) 733-2011

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