Database

Overheard: Using nestable hashmaps instead of ORM

I have never been over the moon with ORM. It solves the need to write SQL in your code, and to iterate through database results sets to form data structures, but it never really addressed the mismatch between true Objects and Data in my opinion. Paul, Is ORM a Dead End?

So why not forget about objects and data encapsulation and use exposed mutable data types instead? Well functional languages have been using this approach for years, an hashmap (Dictionary) with name/value pairs is a mutable data type. You can represent any data type you like by nesting hashmaps. Accepting that all data will be exposed, and that data types are likely to change is a much better fit for database applications where users want to store, navigate and query data.

Overheard: MySQL purchase could be what saves Sun

The MySQL purchase by Sun makes more sense than any other acquisition they have done since they botched NetDynamics 10 years ago. This could be what saves Sun. Dana Gardner, Buying MySQL Could Save Sun

Overheard: Amazon will put your database in a cloud

“Amazon.com has begun publicly testing a third element to its online computing services: a database capability called SimpleDB. The new Web service joins two others the online retailer launched in 2006 that anyone can pay to use: computing horsepower called the Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) and data storage called Simple Storage Service (S3). SimpleDB works in conjunction with those services, letting customers store, modify, and query data.” Stephen Shankland, Amazon opens testing for in-cloud database

Erick Schonfeld caused a bit of a buzzfire by starting out his blog entry on SimpleDB by saying:

“Companies can now go ahead and fire their expensive database administrators—those engineers who keep the Oracle or IBM databases humming.”