[Info-vax] CRTL and RMS vs SSIO

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 10/13/2021 4:44 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 10/13/2021 12:42 PM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>> Den 2021-10-13 kl. 17:09, skrev Dave Froble:
>>> On 10/13/2021 10:04 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 10/12/2021 9:52 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>>> Excuse me, I'm just a dummy, come down out of the hills.  But:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Open file
>>>>> 2) Access data
>>>>> 3) Do some work
>>>>> 4) Write/Update data
>>>>> 5) Done
>>>>>
>>>>> and
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Access database
>>>>> 2) Access data
>>>>> 3) Do some work
>>>>> 4) Write/Update data
>>>>> 5) Done
>>>>>
>>>>> Guess I don't see much difference.
>>>>
>>>> That is because you describe *what* is being done not *how* it is done.
>>>>
>>>> In general you can expect:
>>>>
>>>> data maintenance - replacing a lot of application code with few 
>>>> lines of
>>>> SQL
>>>
>>> You claim that, but I just don't see it.

Try add a column or update some values.

With a relational database in is one SQL statement.

With an index-sequential file it is writing a conversion program.

>>>> applications with simple queries - slightly less code
>>>>
>>>> application code with complex queries - a lot less code
>>>>
>>>> adhoc just get some numbers - replacing a lot of application code with
>>>> few lines of SQL
>>>
>>> Don't see that.
>>>
>>> Also, I've noticed that doing some things with SQL can be much more
>>> complex.
>>
>> It is not clear what you have or haven't seen, but your conclusions
>> are a bit weird. It is so much easier to do data maintanance and
>> adhoq queries aginst a typical SQL database (such as Rdb) than to
>> try that against RMS data files. You are just completely wrong.
> 
> Ad hoc inquiries I'll give you.  RDBMS is great for that.
> 
> But that wasn't in the discussion.  Arne claimed that it took code to 
> use an RDBMS, and with some exceptions, that just isn't always so.

I listed 4 different types of problems.

For two of them the relational database would mean replacing an
application with a one liner of SQL.

For two of them the relational database would mean an application
with less code, because the SQL replaces functionality in the code
with simple constructs.

> Yes, "SELECT * Where Name Like "Dave" is rather simple.  But one must 
> still attach to the database.  Request a Recordset. and so on.
> 
> A simple loop processing an RMS file looking in each record in the field 
> Name for "Dave" can be an open and a couple lines of code.
> 
> Not such a big difference.

Why I called that case for "slightly less code".

But then comes the more complex stuff.

Arne