Xref: utzoo comp.os.vms:9052 comp.unix.wizards:11403 Path: utzoo!yunexus!oz From: oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms,comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Record-access libraries (Was: Re: VMS vs. UNIX file soapbox) Keywords: RMS Message-ID: <864@yunexus.UUCP> Date: 30 Sep 88 05:42:18 GMT Article-I.D.: yunexus.864 References: <68855@sun.uucp> <207@cvbnet2.uucp><3717@encore.uucp> Reply-To: oz@yunexus.UUCP (Ozan Yigit) Organization: York U. Computing Services - Magic Group Lines: 40 [disclaimer: I am an ex-VMS-hack, used RMS extensively in the past, like its power, puke at the sight of its interface, and here, I am speaking of facilities, rather than a messy filesystem format to support multiple file formats] In article Eric S. Raymond writes: > ...other associative retrieval schemes are not within the scope >of the original question. Let's not muddy the waters by confusing 'record >access' in the RMS "fixed and blocked record" sense with more general > database access techniques. They happen to be an integral part of RMS, and extremely well done in functionality, leaving the "goriness" of the interface aside. [Reportedly, even the designer of RMS admitted to its ugliness :-)] If I had a "library" half as powerful as some of RMS's facilities, I would be damn happy... It is a shame that best un*x can come with is ndbm (and that is, if you are lucky :-) Why do you think andrew@alice (Bell Labs) was asking about something that can handle gigantic databases ?? Aren't you curious why more and more programs across variants of un*xes rely on dbm/ndbm type databases ?? It must be RMSicide !! RMS Record access you say ?? this concept is especially revolting for our purist(!) byte-stream-with-a-nl (usually 512 bytes or shorter for idiotic programs :-) perspective. Alas, we merrily keep faking that our byte stream is in fact a collection of average size lines (records for less religious :-) and rush to our soapboxes at the suggestion that something as ugly as RMS can actually be useful. (*because* of its support of "more general database access tecniques".) You know, there is no such thing as "a little bit of purity". On the other hand, crap is crap. [Sounds of shuffling a plane ticket to alaska, to escape flames...] oz -- Reflections are | Usenet: ...!utzoo!yunexus!oz images of tarnished aspirations. | ...uunet!mnetor!yunexus!oz RACTER | Bitnet: oz@[yulibra|yuyetti] [an Artifically Insane program.] | Phonet: +1 416 736-5257x3976