My 2-cents again.
I'll set my comments on your remark in between the lines :-)
On Wednesday 24 January 2001 16:02, you wrote:
> ok, ok. I'll give my 2 cents as well :-)
>
> - The data is 'protected', for example it's simply not possible to have
> double entries (based on several fields)
Primary keys on multiple collums could be nice.
> - References can be made
The format doesn't support references for the moment. Otherwise I would
classify this as a simple filter (ex. asking Pippols and refering to all
other MSX1 konami games of the same year)
> - Updates are absolutely without problems (nothing can be forgotten)
if you set all your columns to NOT NULL, however some fields are
problematic. What if you have the name and genre of game but can not find the
producer, does this mean that you prefer no entry instead of an incomplete
one?
> - fields can be added without worries
Depends on DB. besides isn't that why we standarise the format. Fields
adding/removal is a new version of the standard.
> - parsing of data is not necessary, db software does it
> - filtering is a piece of cake and very extensible
> - sorting is easy (even on multiple fields)
>
> *Any* db system is good enough if it supports SQL statements.
> Mirroring/replication is hi-tech databasing :-) and only available with
> real database engines (even multiple updating nodes)
> exporting and importing is normal business and always well supported
No, wrong.
Look at the dreaded date field. Almost every vendor as a different way of
specifying how to insert date into it's DB system. this means that
import/export script generating is DB dependend. Besides talking about dates,
if an american writes 2/1/2001 he means the first of februarie, an european
thinks it is second januarie 2001, and a japanese program will complain
because it thinks it is year two month februarie day 2001. Need we to
specifie a date format for the MSX game format ??
> Presenting data has nothing to do with storing data. Using a any server
> side script you can access a database and retrieve filtered list (on the
> fly) There are also free hosting sites with scripting.
> Linux, Unix, Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows 2000 are possible platforms
> Database software like MySQL, Postgress, DB/2, Informix are available for
> free download (not the super computer versions ;-)
>
> I understand the 'feeling' of having text files and drag and dropping them
> around. But it shouldn't be the argument not to use a database for
> structured data.
I would like the format to be verry MSX aware. I would like to use it
(unchanged) on a real MSX. SQL on MSX isn't done yet.
So therefore i prefere that the baseformat is flat text, MS(X) -dos style (so
<CRLF> ended.)
David
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