[Info-vax] RMS record metadata, was: Re: Re; Spiralog, RMS Journaling (was

[lawrencedo99 at gmail.com]

On Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 7:04:22 AM UTC+12, David Froble wrote:
> Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>> * Implementing an elaborate ISAM file format. This might be useful, until
>> you consider that something like SQLite offers far more functionality, at a
>> low enough overhead to be included as standard on that Android phone in your
>> pocket.
> 
> Yeah, I was using SQLite back in 1978, worked great, ....  wait ....

We’re not living in 1978 any more. These days, the only things worrying about accessing ISAM files are

* file-format drivers for DBMSes, and
* COBOL programs.

Everything else at the application layer now uses SQL*.

Funny thing about COBOL: it was created as a language supposedly well-suited to business needs. Except nowadays accessing an SQL database is a common business need. Which means you need string handling powerful enough to construct SQL statements and dynamically substitute parameters into them. Which COBOL makes really painful to do.

So those of us who felt that general-purpose languages would be a better fit for business needs than a supposedly “business-oriented” language did get vindicated. Eventually.

*Yes, there is the “NoSQL” movement. I’m not sure what they’re objecting to: is it the limitations of SQL (which I can agree with) or the whole idea of relational databases?