On Mon, Mar 22, 1999 at 02:49:15PM -0500, Robert OConnor wrote:
Looking for some enlightenment: <set learning on>
<HAND WAVING>
I understand that Ztables was formerly Tabula an object database.
By nature anything named "tabula" wouldn't be a pure object database :-) OODB don't have tables, tables are a relational concept, and I believe ZTables is a relational database last I checked---b ut then I've never seen it either, but the implications by Jim/Paul/et. al. are that it is something along these lines.
If one were starting from scratch without legacy data would it make sense to use an object database instead of a relational database?
Maybe, it all depends on your data, the interdependencies, and what kind of queries you run, how ad-hoc, and what level of reporting tools you need. OODB are mature, but their supporting structure (reporting tools, modeling tools, and more importantly Zen :-) are quite lacking in my opinion).
If so, is ZTables/Tabula a full, robust database system that can scale up and exceed the features of Oracle or SQLxxx databases?
i doubt it, but then, Oracle/et al are not necessarily the right answer for all problem sets, it's not a one hammer fits all nails solution.
What are the pros/cons of Object vs Relational databases.
Dear gods, there's thousands of papers written on this topic ;-) References are faster in OODB, ad-hoc is easier in RDB, and there are a billion other blends... it's also necessasry to understand network databases in my mind before you approach OODB. You just can't generalize to this level, it's impossible, and a "quick" overview of OODB v. Relational would require about 30 pages :-) Chris -- | Christopher Petrilli ``Television is bubble-gum for | petrilli@amber.org the mind.''-Frank Lloyd Wright