[Oberon] Oberon Database

[John Drake]

--- Dan Parnete <parnete at aladata.it> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
>     I have read this list archives, the
> documentation inside the 
> distributions, some extra found on the web and I
> understood. Database is 
> a Tabu word in this community, and is better to not
> talk about. There is 
> no trace in any distribution (excluding the
> commercial BlackBox) and the 
> new Bluebottle project doesn't intend to implement
> one. Ok. It's a 
> choice of live. But don't tell me none of you never
> needed to put some 
> data altogether. I can't believe nobody extended at
> list the Library 
> code to more flexible collections management. I saw
> some database 
> projects started long time ago. Where are this
> implementations?
>     In other words: if I need a database, have I
> write it myself?
> 
> Dan

Hello Dan,

I don't think that database is a "dirty word".  It's
just not something that has caught the attention of
anyone at ETH yet.  Well I take that back.  You
mention the "Library" code.  That is, in fact, and
"object oriented" database.  Some months ago I messed
around with implementing a "order entry" database on
top
of the library OODB.  I got some nice results, but
also hit some snags and never quite finished it.
I guess I should post what I have so far.

Also Linz Oberon V4 has an optional package called
"Oberon-D".  Originally this was simply persistence
for Oberon.  The nice thing is that since Linz V4
Oberon has a complete reflection package (much
nicer than what's currently available for System 3)
you can make any type persistent (as opposed to 
types under the "object" hierarchy in System 3).
But then they went on to implement a full object
oriented database.  It's based on one of the OODB
standards and takes full "SQL" like commands that
are converted by Coco/R to Oberon source which
is compiled on the fly.  (Since Oberon has always
compiled very quickly this is not noticed at all).
Unfortunately I noticed some bugs trying to use
it and I don't think it is actively supported.
Also I can't get to the Linz Oberon site today.
I hope this is just a temporary problem.  Here
is the link:

http://www.ssw.uni-linz.ac.at/Oberon.html

Also you mentioned BlackBox not having a built
in database.  But it does come with ODBC support.
V4 comes with ODBC support, but the version directly
from Linz doesn't work with the latest ODBC drivers.
I fixed that on my own machine and need to upload
the fix to the community at large.  (I've forgotten
what I did now so I need to go back and look at the
code.)  The current version of System 3 for windows
does not include ODBC support, although it was in
the previous version.  Again there seems to be some
problems with the latest ODBC drivers. (Perhaps this
is why it didn't make it to the "PlugIn Oberon"
distribution?)  I think that having a database 
system built entirely in Oberon is a worthwhile
project and very necessary for BlueBottle.  But
for day-to-day work on Oberon implemented on other 
operating systems (Windows, Linux ect) 
the most important thing is to have ODBC 
working correctly.  I often use little
ODBC "scripts" in V4 for instance for "real work".
Perhaps the ODBC code from V4 can be ported, or the
code from the earlier version of System 3 for Windows
can be fixed.

Regards,

John M. Drake

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