Re: Cranky Geeks

"Tony Gravagno" <address.is.in.posts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:i2h6445gqg315f7uaa9hrh9d7of6cr5b92@xxxxxxxxxx
"Bill H" wrote:


In short, they don't use the relational model. They store data in
units called items. Each item has fields called attributes, and
attributes can be further divided into multiple values. It's an
unusual unCoddish concept and I doubt it will ever fly, but hey, this
is what the geniouses at Google came up with, so maybe it has a
chance.

Actually, this is a result all the developer tools using XML for storing
stuff. Did you ever wonder why there was a gazillion code screen editors
systems for pick? The reason is because every time a developer needed to
store a whole bunch of the application parts (such as values for the
location
of a text box on a screen), we could simply write out an item with this
program information.

the result was it was just soooo easy for a developer to save those "user
defined" parts of the application in a simple item. You don't have to hard
code the structure in your code, and you don't have to create a table in a
database for that ONE item of things you need to store. This is pick, and
now, this is xml.

Today, all developer tools allow programmers to save that data via xml. And,
their web protocols such as soap also use xml to pass these "items" around
exactly like we did in our old pick days. It was oh so nice to pass a
simply "dynamic" var to a routine, and if later on we added more
fields/data to that one item, the code continued to function..

Text based delimited data items are developers dream, and the whole
programming industry has discovered what we had 20+ years ago.

So, if you look at Google, or even SharePoint "lists", they are actually xml
because that's how all of the developer tools work now. Remember, SharePoint
is the office api going into the cloud, and even SharePoint "lists" are
again xml. And, once again, you see the same terms/concepts applied to those
SharePoint lists. Those lists of course can store spreadsheets, or your
outlook
calendar in SharePoint, and you can now write code that easily manipulates
those "lists" which are in fact now a item of data ...just like we had/have
in pick.

Heck, even the menu customizing in office 2007 are now xml text files that
you can create and modify yourself. Amazing, but you customize the menus in
office 2007 with text files (xml).

Yup...the industry has truly and finally grasped the beauty of flexible
dynamic items of text...be they our pick items, or now xml....it is the same
idea, and it is now mainstream...

--
Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
pleaseNOOSpamKallal@xxxxxxx


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