Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!uh2
From: UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Database Company Contacts
Message-ID: <34357UH2@PSUVM>
Date: 23 Feb 88 14:14:53 GMT
References: <1408@bucsb.UUCP> <30175UH2@PSUVM> <24028@cca.CCA.COM> <823@mdbs.UUCP> <33672UH2@PSUVM> <244@oracle.UUCP>
Organization: Penn Sate Erie--School of Business
Lines: 49

In article <244@oracle.UUCP>, rbradbur@oracle.UUCP (Robert Bradbury) says:
>
>In article <33672UH2@PSUVM>, UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes:
>> In article <823@mdbs.UUCP>, kbc@mdbs.UUCP (Kevin Castleberry) says:
>> >
>> >MDBS III (a post-relational high performance dbs)
>>              ~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~
>>                    |
>>           What does this mean?
>>
>
>It means the vendor has developed a non-standard interface to a database
>which represents their view of how a user should interact with his/her data.
>It also means that under the pretense of providing a better interface
>the vendor stands a good chance of locking you into their product.
>(How do you spell IMS?  MVS?  etc. ...)
>

I asked the "what is post-relational" question, and this answer--"a non-
standard interface"--seems to be right.  I got another very useful answer
from another person, but my mail software couldn't find the return path.

In the specific case of MDB it is unfair to group it with IMS or other
*older* products.  It seems to be a very modern Extended Network model.
It would probably have been more accurate of Mdbs to call it post-network
instead of post-relational.

Naturally, as a network dbms, MDBS offers record and link navigation
commands, but according to their literature, they also support "nonprocedural
structured English requests".  I haven't seen it, though.

It is perfectly reasonable to build a high level relational language over
the top of a network system.  Maybe MDBS has done a good job, maybe not.

Its strengths, as advertised, seem to be (1) available for pcdos, unix,
xenix, ultrix, unos, and various LANs, (2) direct support of logical
models including many-to-many and subtype-hierarchies (inheritance?),
(3) interfaces with their spreadsheet and rules-driven expert system (GURU),
(4) transaction logging, rollback, and error recovery, (5) record locking.

They also claim to have delivered SQL for PCDOS in 1983.

I also happen to know that Solomon, one of the best accounting packages
available, is written in MDBSIII.

Ramble, ramble, ramble  8-)

In summary, from what I've seen, these guys look like good scouts.

                                                                lee