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From: n67786@assari.tut.fi (Nieminen Tero)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: 4th Dimension & Networking over the phone
Message-ID: <N67786.90Dec11164401@assari.tut.fi>
Date: 11 Dec 90 15:44:01 GMT
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	<FRANCIS.90Dec11105152@wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu>
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In-Reply-To: francis@wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu's message of 11 Dec 90 15:51:52 GMT


In article <FRANCIS.90Dec11105152@wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu> francis@wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu (RD Francis) writes:

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   From: francis@wolfman.cis.ohio-state.edu (RD Francis)
   Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
   Date: 11 Dec 90 15:51:52 GMT
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   In article <10599@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
      >>?
      >
      >That sounds like the dumbest design I have ever heard of. What the
      >hell good is a server that does compute?
      >
      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.

   To risk belaboring the obvious here, that's how all of the Mac
   databases work, with the probable exception of Oracle.  Also, this is
   how all file servers that I know of work, regardless of whether
   they're being used with a database or not.  Just trying to avoid
   confusion.
   --
   R David Francis   francis@cis.ohio-state.edu

Actually there is at least Double Helix III that has it own server that
works in a data server fashion as opposed to file server. So Oracle is
not completely alone. Even I don't know any more data base programs
besides the two mentioned here that would use data server approach.  But
Double Helix due to its implementation is faster in most operations that
the file server counterparts. So I would be interrested to know if
somebody tries it over a modem connection.

--
   Tero Nieminen                    Tampere University of Technology
   n67786@cc.tut.fi                 Tampere, Finland, Europe
-- 
   Tero Nieminen                    Tampere University of Technology
   n67786@cc.tut.fi                 Tampere, Finland, Europe