Re: object databases

Frans Bouma wrote:
Fact is, relational databases have drawbacks too, which aren't present
in OODB's. For example, working with objects in the code consuming the
database's data is more efficient if you use an OODB as you then don't
have to convert OO to relational and back.

Well, I never understood the so called "impedance mismatch" problem.
Calling SQL from say java code is one of the easiest tasks in mordern
programming. Getting results back is straightforward as well. What I
also never has been able to grasp is why would you discard this simple
idea lightly in favor of learning obscure 20 something mapping rules
(TopLink).

Of course, using an OODB has
drawbacks as I described in my post in this thread, but if you don't
run into them, which is often in a program which is targeting a niche
or has specialistic features, an OODB doesn't have to be a bad choice.

You have to tell what niche it is. Somebody mentioned bill of
materials, but are they really familiar with hierarchical query
facilities in SQL?

.