From: (Markus Fischer)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.object, comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Statice now runs on Unix
Date: 15 Jun 93 14:55:48 GMT
Hi there,
since I’ve never seen ‘Symbolics’ or ‘Statice’ in comp.database.object, this might be interesting:
A few days ago, Symbolics announced the availability of a beta- release of their ODBMS ‘Statice’ on Unix platforms. It is quite powerful and tightly integrated within Common Lisp. Currently, Symbolics and LUCID are supported. People (like me) used to Symbolics’ Genera development environment can continue to use Statice there (where it has been already successfully employed in ‘real world’ applications) and now also use it on Unix Workstations. (Those are the cheaper boxes, I guess). Both kinds of platforms can be freely intermixed in a network.
Statice is based on standards of Lisp: CLOS and CLIM (Common Lisp Object System, resp. Common Lisp Interface Manager)
Here’s the address of Symbolics in Germany; they’re mostly responsible for Statice on Unix:
Symbolics Systemhaus GmbH
Mergenthalerallee 77
6236 Eschborn (til June 31)
65760 Eschborn (from July 1)
Tel. (49) 6196-47220, Fax (49) 6196-481116
Contact person is Dr. Thomas Neumann ().
Also:
“Update Database Schema” brings an existing database into conformance with a modified schema. Changes are classified as either compatible (lossless, i.e., completely information-preserving) or incompatible (i.e., potentially information-losing in the current implementation). Basically, any change is compatible except for the following:
— If an attribute’s type changes, all such attributes extant are re-initialized (nulled out). Note that Statice permits an attribute to be of type T, the universal type. Such an attribute can then take on any value without schema modification or information loss.
— If a type’s inheritance (list of parents) changes, the type must be deleted and re-created, losing all extant instances of that type. This is Statice’s most serious current limitation. The simplest workaround is to employ a database dumper/loader (either the one supplied by Symbolics or a customized one) to save the information elements and then reload them into the modified schema.
[Lawrence G Mayka ]
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