Re: [NTLK] Developer Soup question

From: Eckhart Köppen (eck1001_at_gmx.net)
Date: Wed Apr 28 2004 - 11:46:31 PDT


On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 11:44:24 -0700, Will Hartung wrote:
> What do you think of Soups? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Favorite
> feature? Worse Feature?

Love them. The learning curve is a bit steep, especially regarding
stores, but otherwise, they're just great.

> Is the ability to simply store an arbitrary frame in a soup valuable
> compared to having to set up a schema?

Schema Schmema, that's so 70s ;) Frames are great, making extending
existing application data really simple.

> Are managing "inter soup" aliases a
> problem?

I'm not using them very much, mostly because you then have to think
about vanishing target entries on removed storage cards.

> I notice that indexes are typed ('slot 'string), what happens if the slot
> value is not the same type as specified in the index, will the index skip
> it?

I guess you get an error when trying to add such a frame to the soup or
when updating it.

> The other uniqe aspect of the Soup is the "union soup" to handle splitting
> soups to removable storage.

Indeed. Just look at the problems people seem to have on Palm and WinCE
devices with adding more storage space... it doesn't seem to be usable
in an easy manner (I haven't used any of these devices personally
though).

> Any idea why the number of tag's on a soup are limited to, what, ~600?

Probably an arbitray implementation limit.

> I'm just curious as someone who has seen them from afar and what folks who
> had to manage them thought about them as a storage mechanism. Do you think
> in hindsight a mini-SQL like system would have been more flexible and easier
> to use?

Please, no SQL ;)! Just recently, I had to struggle with the DBMS on
Symbian and failed to get the point in using it. I guess nowadays
however, it's rather XML what people are screaming for, and I fail to
see the point there as well in most cases (and I have worked with XML
for years ;).

Eckhart

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