Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!metaphor!xymox!philf From: philf@xymox.metaphor.com (Phil Fernandez) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Parsing Query Languages in the Client or Server Message-ID: <802@metaphor.Metaphor.COM> Date: 25 Sep 89 04:31:06 GMT References: <6155@sybase.sybase.com> <6167@sybase.sybase.com> <1989Sep24.215650.15732@odi.com> Sender: news@metaphor.Metaphor.COM Reply-To: philf@xymox.metaphor.com (Phil Fernandez) Organization: Metaphor Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA Lines: 51 In article <1989Sep24.215650.15732@odi.com> dlw@odi.com writes: >In article <6167@sybase.sybase.com> jeffl@sybase.Sybase.COM (Jeff Lichtman) writes: > > > At Britton Lee > > query languages were parsed in the clients and parse trees were sent > > to the server. Here at Sybase we send the query language to the > > server to be parsed. > > I believe the latter approach is better. The world is moving toward > open, standardized interfaces. There is already an ANSI SQL standard, > and a subcommittee of ANSI X3H2 is working on remote database access > protocols. Eventually, a client will be able to run queries on anyone's > server without having to know much about the server. > >There's one aspect of this standardization that I've never understood. >The ANSI SQL definition provides a standard for queries to relational >databases. However, there doesn't seem to be anything that provides a >standard describing the format of the data returned by the server to >the client. For example, what delimits one value from the next, or >one tuple from the next? Are floating point numbers sent in an ASCII >representation, or binary using IEEE format, or what? > >Is there currently any standardization between/among more than one >vendor in this area? Good question! I'd also be interested in information about international standardization efforts in this area. At Metaphor, we have an internal standard for return data from relational data base servers. In our architecture, we implement data base gateways to each vendor's data base whose primary function is to convert that vendor's proprietary return format to our standard: Metaphor Table Transfer Format (MTTF). MTTF deals with encoding formats, numeric representations, byte ordering, etc. Currently, MTTF supports Sharebase, Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, Teradata, DB2, and SQL/DS. Clearly, this is an area that could well take advantage of standardization. (These are purely my own opinions; Metaphor pays me for real opinions) pmf +-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+ | Phil Fernandez | philf@metaphor.com | | | ...!{apple|decwrl}!metaphor!philf | | Metaphor Computer Systems |"Does the body rule the mind, or does the mind| | Mountain View, CA | rule the body? I dunno..." - Morrissey | +-----------------------------+----------------------------------------------+