Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!mmk
From: mmk@netcom.com (Mark Kunichika)
Subject: Re: smalltalk performance in data intensive application
Message-ID: <mmkD083HF.IJM@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <carlmD0485s.4n6@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 1994 07:00:51 GMT
Lines: 40

In article <carlmD0485s.4n6@netcom.com>,
Carl Margolis <carlm@netcom.com> wrote:
>My situation is this:
>        I have been charged by my corporate taskmasters with building a 
>Query/EIS/DSS/etc. tool in no time for no money for sale to their current 
>client list which includes Disney's, Macy's, Sears, and other large retailers. 
[snip]
>1-4 years experience. I'm strongly considering going to smalltalk for this 
>project but I'm worried about smalltalk's performance in applications which 
>require intensive data manipulation of very large data sets. In particular, 
>the kind of multi-dimensional data cube manipulation ("slicing & dicing",etc) 
>have got me worried. I find it hard to believe that a link-list or b-tree 
[snip]
>        I'm also concerned about the SQL - OO mapping problem. There are now a 
>number of solutions just available but I don't know much about the smalltalk 
>products in this area. I don't mean just putting SQL behind a control but a 
>real engine which will build high quality SQL on the fly as the user 
>manipulates the product.
[snip]

Carl,
I hope I'm not giving away our corporate strategic advantage here (I
like to think of it as advertising - uh-oh, did I say advertising?
I meant ... umm ... showing off - that's allowed, isn't it?), but
at SABRE Decision Technologies, we've built a system that does
interactive query and navigation of complex relational (mostly)
databases in Smalltalk. We do sell it, but I don't think you're
interested, since you mentioned "no money."

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that it's possible. Oh, the datasets
it handles under DOS/Windows are smaller than the ones it can handle
under Sun and RS/6000 - though this only applies to local/retrieved data.

-mark

-- 
Mark Kunichika                                            mmk@netcom.com
Senior Consultant                                         (817) 967-6293
SABRE Decision Technologies                               (214) 380-8540
American Airlines         
      All opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of AA
