Re: So, who's maintaining the module registry?

["Peter C. Norton" <spacey@inch.com>]

On Tue, Oct 27, 1998 at 06:04:19PM -0500, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> > > (rdbms productname version)?

> I vaguely volunteered for this task. 

You've admitted it again.  Say it three times and it's true :)
 
> In this case, I suggest (db ...) as a prefix for general database
> interfaces, for example (db sql) for a generic sql interface, and (db
> <variety> <product>) for back-ends specific to an individual
> databases, for instance (db sql oracle) or (db sql mysql).

I'm also favoring this.
 
> I have to admit I don't know enough about databases to know what the
> different kinds are or if splitting them up by this kind of
> categorization is at all useful. it would help if someone with more
> database clue could explain things to me or point to a place to find
> out the differences.

There are some interesting database types out there.  (db sql product) 
seems good from my point of view, since I'm interested in the interface,
not the (broadly speaking) implementation details.  

My earlier suggestion of (rdbms ...) is misleading, because there are
people out there who would argue (and there seems to be one implemented) 
that you can have an RDBMS w/o sql, but they probably require a different
query syntax from sql databases.  Maybe different other things as well.  I
don't think it's a good idea to think about cramming different interfaces,
that were made to be different, into the same module.  

Ah - there was query-by-example a few years back.  From what I've read,
that is/was a front end for RDBMS's as well.

> On second thought, maybe (database ...) is a better prefix to avoid
> confusion with Berkely `db'. But on second second thought that is
> annoyingly verbose.

I see nothing wrong with (db berkely 2.0.14).  db is such a generic term
that just because there is a berkely db it should be seen as the only one.


-- 
Peter C. Norton                      Time comes into it. / Say it.  Say it.
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                                     Muriel Rukeyser "The Speed of Darknesss"