Object Oriented
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Years ago I was working with SQL Server and we were investigating the possibility of rewriting our core financial trading applications. There were a number of features we needed and we had quite a few younger programmers working on the problem.
In undertaking a major rewrite of our systems, it was decided that we should investigate all sorts of possibilities. At that time in the late 90s, we used a combination of NT 4, VB 6, ASP, SQL Server 6.5, etc. in a typical Microsoft-based startup fashion. However we went and talked with a number of companies and looked at other technologies, including Java/EJBs, Linux, Cold Fusion, and more.
Some of the technologies were less mainstream and some still haven't grown. However one area that I investigated a little was the database alternatives to SQL Server. I'm not sure what reminded me of this recently, but I decided it would be a good poll.
Are you using an Object Oriented database anywhere?
You see at the time, Poet and Versant were in use and there was some interesting press on the performance and speed of these databases. Of course now we have a number of Java based object databases as well as other OODBSes.
I was impressed by some of the claims, but my basic C/Java skills only let me put together basic apps and the idea of training our staff in C/C++ was a little frightening, so we abandoned the project.
So I'm wondering, does this technology get used anywhere? I expect as SQL Server DBAs it might not be something you've been exposed to since object databases seem to be more popular in the Java/C++ world, but I'd be interested to know if you are using them and how.
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Oracle's Jim Melton ANSI SQL member and Java expert said the main mistake was the Object database creators refusing to do the Algebra so for the most part these databases just dump data without processing.
Which leads to scalability issues, Oracle 8i was Object Relational and the company thinks it was a mistake so 9i was later released very quickly. It is funny the Oracle ADO.NET provider does not support 8i that is like Microsoft not supporting 7.0., but the Microsoft ADO.NET provider supports 8i. If you check ANSI SQL 2003 you will see XML section XML was accepted into ANSI SQL because the Algebra work is started albeit incomplete.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie -
I do, but I'm not a dba, so I won't have the same experience as most on this list.
One big problem for OODBMS (at least in terms of market penetration) is the fact that their hierarchical nature maps onto a smaller set of application types than relational's broad base. In my case, I work on a GIS core (similar to a CAD system) and the data by nature fit an OODB beautifully. If your data and access paths match the OODB model, the performance is phenomenal. I'd put our ancient code running on equally old hardware up against any modern rdbms storing identical data and be quite confident that the 7yr old stuff would still win. Just don't try to report on anything in the OODB... (Disclaimer: I haven't actually touched this stuff in a long time, but am currently negotiating to get the C++ impl into the OSS community and port it to C#. So technically I don't currently use an OODB right now, but hope to again soon!)
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nah, not really.
I'm a developer rather than a DBA, and all my coding is done in OO languages, but I haven't done anything with OO databases.
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C8H10N4O2
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True OO databases haven't caught on much, AFAIK. Neither have native XML databases. There are some query languages, like XPath extant, but the amount of infrastructure behind them is nowhere near what is available for SQL.
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I have been developing with the Zope application server now for more than 5 years. As you may know this software includes an OO DB called the ZODB. So far I have no complaints on performance. I guess it's main downfall is querying.
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Not currently, but less than 2 years ago. Flowcast is a popular healthcare applicaiton, and the CACHE OOD from Intersystems underlies it.
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We are implementing a new Trust Accounting system that uses Cache. I have not as yet worked with it, and from some preliminary discussions, probably won't. Apparently it's based upon an older hierarchical db technology known as MUMPS with SQL sort of bolted on. Doesn't seem to be very open. I've read some postings re: the difficulty in exporting data from it. The only type of access to the db will be through the application interface. Won't be much db administration required, except for backing up the data file.
Unlike SQL Db's which are more general purpose systems, my take on Cache is that it is probably very good for certain types of applications that match that storage model. The DB and the app seem to be tightly coupled to the detriment of any access to the DB outside of the app. From my perspective, it looks like we are implementing another silo'd app that will be difficult or impossible to integrate with anything else in the enterprise.
But, as I said, I haven't really used it. These are just my impressions from the limited amount of research I did once I found out we would be implementing a system with it.
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We have an application in Cache as well. The vendor supports it all and will not even give us access to the DB so we just maintain the hardware and OS (we have 2 other 'weird' venfors like that as well) . However I have downloaded the full DBMS from the website and played a bit. eh. It looks like an overgrown FoxPro with some compresion and a lot of in memory stuff. From a developers standpoint though it has the flexibility to look at the data via a number of mechanisms (hierarchical, relational and OO).
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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Back when I focused a lot more on programming, I dealt with OO languages and went to an OO conference (OOPSLA). But I haven't had the experience of dealing with an OODB. I wouldn't mind seeing what they were about though.
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I'm a developer, so when I code (whether TSQL or C#), I think in terms of OO. I do my best to map the relational world to OO world. I'm not always successful though
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