Re: COBOL and DB2 vs. Java and DB2



"Judson McClendon" <judmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MGuHi.52087$Y7.9502@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Robert" <no@xxxxxx> wrote:
"Judson McClendon" <judmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In the situations I am familiar with, traditional mainframe databases
blow
the doors off SQL type approaches. Whoever designed SQL must have
been entirely clueless, or indifferent, to machine efficiency.

Everyone who's run a Google search knows that to be untrue. It displays
the time it spent
searching three billion Web pages. I just did it with four wildcard
words -- "for * * nail
the * was lost". It found 27,000 in .08 seconds. That's fast!

Yes, and how many shared servers does it require to achieve that, eh?
My point was about hardware efficiency. If it takes 20 computers to
do what one could do using another approach, then it is less hardware
efficient.

Judson, you may be over-reacting here (Robert's posts often have that effect
on people :-)) and losing sight of the actual argument.

If those 20 computers each cost less than one twentieth the cost of the
single computer, then your case is not made.

While I'm here, I would point out that your statement above regarding SQL is
at best provocative, at worst, simply untrue.

If, by "traditional mainframe databases" you mean VSAM datasets connected
together, or (I seem to recall your background is Unisys?) perhaps indexed
random files in a FORTE style database, then it is very arguable whether
these would "blow the doors off" an SQL type approach (by which I take it
you mean Relational Database).

There was a time when this MIGHT have been true, but that time is long gone.
Certainly, a well designed "Traditional" DB benchmarked against a poorly
designed RDB will not fare well (I know, because I used the performance
argument to enable a certain company to hold onto their existing VSAM and
resist RDB, but that was 20 years ago...)

I've had a bit to do with Relational Databases (and, indeed, traditional
databases) and enhancing the performance of both. I don't think your
statement stands against a modern Relational Database (even free ones like
MySQL, and PostgreSQL, which are excellent products.)

RDBMS are much smarter than they used to be; the better ones can actually
monitor their own performance and optimize storage for the statistically
most likely accesses being experienced. If access patterns change, so does
the physical organization of the data. Stored procedures can run as
asynchronous tasks, and the latest models allow result sets to be obtained
and processed in cache so that connections are freed instantly and there is
no need to lock a connection while running a SQL cursor, for example.

Ironically, although today's SQL is running on much more powerful platforms
than yesterday's did, it still not enough for the future and new ways of
accessing data (not to mention new storage technologies) are already
emerging

Just one such is the emerging technology of Query Expressions (LINQ) and
Lambda functions for data, which is using the Relational model to set SQL on
its head and support deferred execution, load levelling across servers, and
parallel processing, all transparent to the application programmer. Some of
this stuff (Lambdas) is showing incredible data transfers with terabytes
transmitted instantly across country. (Try GOOGLE on the terms I've
mentioned.)

Here's a video interview from 2005 with Anders Hejlberg, which explains why
an Object approach to Data access can allow "across the board" access to
tables in memory, XML files, Documents, as well as Relational DBs, using a
single OO Query language. Most of what he talks about is now available:
http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=114680

If you bring yourself up to date on database technology you may well find it
blows the doors off traditional approaches...:-)

Personally, I find it very exciting and am beginning to use C# to run Query
Expressions rather than SQL. It is very early days yet and I am still
learning, but it is much more natural than SQL., and integrates seamlessly
into the language.

With new storage technologies just around the corner we need to find smarter
ways to access data. SQL, particularly embedded SQL, may be rendered
redundant by these new approaches. It is a very long way away from
"traditional mainframe databases".

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."


.

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