Re: Highlander entitlement??

Yes, you'll need to have a server service running.


Hummm.... what means "a server service running"? Perhaps do you mean
by 'server service' the Blackfish? (and the Blackfish's TCP port
opened?) - if the Blackfish is really a DB server, then one can
(*not* should) put it on any machine (which has .NET installed) have
only the port opened and that's all. Or (perhaps) I'm missing
something?

Of course, for many reasons, - mainly speed, security & stability -
(and .NET <g>) imho, it's strongly indicated to put the thing on a
dedicated machine.

That is what I meant. Run Blackfish as a Windows service on a remote
server with a TCP port opened allowing for remote connections.

Or, if I installed the .NET runtime on each client, could I drop
the Blackfish data file on the network share too? Letting
whatever workstations happen to be on handle file locking, with
just a file server?

If the file is copied locally and then opened by Blackfish, sure. I
don't think you can have multiple instances of Blackfish accessing
the same datafile. This, I imagine, is because of the support for
journaling and two-phase commits. Remember Blackfish is a full SQL
database engine and supports most of the same features that you
would expect to find for a full-strength SQL server.


(Disclaimer: I'm not a 'Blackfish guy' but I'll try to put my 2c
here... :-) )

Accessing a SQL server DB like a ISAM DB is one of the best ways to
totally corrupt the DB, of course this is only if the SQL engine
doesn't put an exclusive lock on the file(s) which have the DB data
- which will hold, in fact, the other users out. The reason(s) for
this way of working depends on architecture, but, imho, mainly is due
of the lock manager who regards the DB as its 'own' property - the
locking happens in the memory not in a (lock) file due to speed
reasons (mainly). A DLM (Distributed Lock Manager) is used only in
very concrete situations in SQL servers world (eg. clustering).

I agree. Trying to apply ISAM semantics to a SQL server is bound to
cause problems. That being said, there *is* a way for the Blackfish
engine to do that. I remember the guys talking about it. Again, I'm
not the expert on Blackfish by any stretch, so I may not be properly
representing it in this regard.

Also, Allen, be aware - (I also made in the past some kinkles in this
ng) about the "cultural issues" if you want to get out the users from
BDE arena (or any ISAM for that matter) - which is good imho, - in
C/S way of thinking. Imho, you'll have problems if you'll try to use
Blackfish for this.

One of the lead architects for Blackfish came from Ansa when Borland
purchased Paradox. He's got nearly 20 years of experience in all the
various types and flavors of DB technologies. I think he's been around
the block a few times and understands the issues.

The Blackfish guys would be better able to answer that. I'm sure
more information will be available in the coming weeks. Be sure to
attend some of the BDN radio events next week and ask this question
in the Blackfish session.


Yeah, Allen, these events are nice but for many of us there are
almost impossible to follow (different time zones, many of us are not
native English speakers - as you know the vast majority of Delphi
developers are outside of US, - also the material isn't so dense due
to oral nature of the event). Perhaps some presence of some bits of
BlackFish /DBXes in a ng will be very welcome. :-) (Perhaps our
beloved Nick has something to say here? :-) ...)

We have to balance the time for engineers to do their primary jobs and
taking time to write blogs, troll the ngs, and participate in the
community. It is highly encouraged, however not a requirement. As for
these online "radio" events we get significant feedback that they are
very well recieved and attended. They're also very cost effective,
gives the engineers a chance to interact directly with the customers
and to practice their presentation skills. We record all the events
and try to vary the times to accomodate many of the various timezones.

Now because we're talking about talks, can you say something about
VCL 2.0? In this ng was some agitation around the theme, and one of
the 'general' opinions was that VCL lacks of a powerful middle layer
containers (hash, trees - stuff like that) frameworks and language
elements in order to get the developer's work done quickly. Please,
can you share your thoughts on theme?

We're in the midst of initial planning and research the the
post-Highlander release. So I cannot really comment on anything
concrete simply because I just don't know yet. I *do* know that we
have these kinds of things on the list. That list is growing daily and
we have to manage the priorities in a holistic fashion.

As an aside: We know that you're a busy person, but it's really nice
to have you among us. :-)

I find that it is always a bit of a risk to pop into non-tech... You
never know where the latest landmines are located :-).

--
Allen Bauer
CodeGear
Chief Scientist
http://blogs.borland.com/abauer
.

Relevant Pages

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