[Koha-devel] RE: Koha

[Pat Eyler]

On Tue, 10 Sep 2002, Anthony W. Youngman wrote:

> Hi Pat,
>
> sorry to take a while to get back. I've been marshalling my thoughts
> somewhat (I'd asked Brian for a contact e-addy and wasn't quite expecting
> him to forward my details to you, not that I'm unhappy he did...).

Actually, I asked him for your email address when he said that you were
trying to get in touch with me.

>
> Were Dynix a Pick licencee? The name sounds familiar, but I'm not sure
> whether that's why. I'm pleased to know you know MV - shame you don't seem
> such a fanatic as me :-)

Dynix used Unidata (at least while I was there, I'd assume that they're
now UniVerse users).

>
> "Custom database". Where I saw it - in your FAQ, namely "What record formats
> does Koha support?".


Hmm, that's not terribly clear (although it's aimed at librarians, not
developers).  It would better read, "We're currently using a custom
database schema to organize our records in a MySQL database.", or
something like that.

>
> Which is why I thought Pick might be an excellent fit for Koha - seeing as a
> library database is heavily text oriented, and Pick is 100% text based ...
> :-) Looking at the MARC layout, it seems an even better fit. Obviously,
> seeing as you know MV, you'll know what I'm getting at, but I'd store one
> MARC record per Pick record. Together with hefty indexing, I'd expect that
> to blow MySQL out of the water for speed of retrieval. Unfortunately, what
> with the speed of disks and the amount of RAM modern computers have, being
> 500% faster probably doesn't count for much :-(
>
> I know the biggest impediment to switching to an underlying MV database is
> "it's different", and I well understand your concerns, but surely it can't
> be that hard... :-) bearing in mind so many Pick sites have users writing
> very functional code ... :-) although I heartily concur with you wanting
> programmers to keep in control of things! I've cleaned up too many messes in
> my time created by people who didn't understand the basics :-( Oh well,
> that's life.
>
> By the way, MaVerick will sit on top of MySQL - when we get a working TCL in
> place (it might well be here by now) we should be able to define DICTs and
> read Koha files directly in MaVerick ... so it might well be possible to
> make the back ends interchangeable. But to argue that using MaVerick would
> make a massive speed difference on a 16Mb 486 wouldn't cut much ice, even
> though it's true :-)
>
> I'll look at oss4lib and see what's there, and I'll hunt up my code. But if
> you want to pick up some interesting stuff on how Pick does (and MaVerick
> will) handle fast native text retrieval, go to www.oliver.com, into mailing
> lists, files, and look at a couple of papers that are there. One is called
> "Litwin", I think, and the other is called dynamic_hash_coding.

Well, you keep working on MaVerick, we'll keep working on Koha, and
maybe at some point things will merit another look.  In the meantime, do
get involved with OSS4Lib, it's a good list and, who knows, you might end
up convincing a few people that MV is in fact the way to go.

BTW, I'm CC:ing the koha-devel list just so that the discussion can hit a
few more eyes and ears.

-pate

>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pat Eyler [mailto:pate at eylerfamily.org]
> Sent: 08 September 2002 00:55
> To: Anthony W. Youngman
> Subject: Re: Koha
>
>
> On Sat, 7 Sep 2002, Anthony W. Youngman wrote:
>
> > In message <Pine.LNX.4.44.0209052116510.1556-100000 at petrol.whirlycott.co
> > m>, Pat Eyler <pate at eylerfamily.org> writes
> > >Anthony,
> > >Brian Profitt said that I should drop you a line about Koha.  He
> mentioned
> > >that you had some ideas that could benefit the project.  What's on your
> > >mind?
> > >
>
>
> This transmission is intended for the named recipient only. It may contain
> private and confidential information. If this has come to you in error you
> must not act on anything disclosed in it, nor must you copy it, modify it,
> disseminate it in any way, or show it to anyone. Please e-mail the sender to
> inform us of the transmission error or telephone ECA International
> immediately and delete the e-mail from your information system.
> Telephone numbers for ECA International offices are: Sydney +61 (0)2 9911
> 7799, Hong Kong + 852 2121 2388, London +44 (0)20 7351 5000 and New York +1
> 212 582 2333.
>
>