Very Computer

I just heard a rumor that there's a new
database paradigm:  something from IBM that combines
the Relational and OO approaches.

Is it true?

If so,  is there anything really new in the paradigm?

Thanks a lot for any reply.
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(my opinions do not necessarily reflect those of my organization)

Quote:> I just heard a rumor that there's a new
> database paradigm:  something from IBM that combines
> the Relational and OO approaches.

As far as the "new" database paradigm, the industry has started to refer to
this technology as "Object-Relational". IBM has been talking about (and
researching) the OO-Relational model for years now (code named "starburst"),
but have yet to offer a real product.

Quote:> Is it true?

Did they actually announce the availability of this product??
If they've actually announced this new product, it was with the least amount
of "hoopla" I've ever seen. The only database product recently announced by
IBM was the DB2 for the RISC 6000. It is essentially the DB2 for OS2 product
ported to AIX.

Quote:

> If so,  is there anything really new in the paradigm?

The paradigm is that one can do "Object" type operations (i.e. pointer chasing,
column data types being another table, inheritance, etc) with the speed and
control of OODB's and yet still supports SQL (with some new extensions to
access the new features). It is getting the best technology of the new
(OODB) without giving up the old (relational) tried and true.

There are already at least two Object-Relational products currently available.
One is called "Montage" (a.k.a. Postgres) by one of the original founders
of Ingress. The other product is from UniSQL (the company I work for) by
Dr. Won Kim. Our product has been generally available for about 2 years.
Montage has just become generally available. If and when IBM enters this
market, there will likely be behind in terms of capability and stability.

Even the great Oracle wizards are adding "Object" extensions to their next
major release. I'm not sure what their definition of "Object" extensions
are. I would be interested to hear what this means more in terms of what
can the end user do now that he/she couldn't before.

Jon Higby
Technical Services Consultant
UniSQL, Inc.

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