5 ms·
A file-backed hashtable isn't really a DB.
by otabdeveloper4 1mo ago
A file-backed hashtable isn't really a DB.
- riffraff 1mo agoWell, dbm (database manager) is basically that and has been called that for almost 50 years
- otabdeveloper4 29d agodbm isn't a database either, and people who call it that are simply wrong.
- shakna 29d agoSo... Databases weren't invented, until after the name was in common use?
- insanitybit 1mo agoIf someone asked me what a DB is, I'd probably start the conversation with the exact description "a file-backed map, like a hashmap".
- mikedelago 1mo agoWhy not?
- otabdeveloper4 28d ago"Database" implies there's some sort of data aggregation or query primitive under the hood.
- shakna 27d agoIn 1971, the Database Task Group, presented the formalisation of a standard to approaches used at the time, CODASYL (1959), in the formation of... COBOL. There is no query primitives in the CODASYL Data Model. Only a Data Manipulation Language. Because "relational" databases didn't really happen until the early '80s - nearly a decade later. (SQL came directly out of work on CODASYL). We had a Database Task Group, long, long, before we had the concept of a query primitive.
- rcxdude 29d agoit's not a relational database, but those aren't the only kind.
- howerj 29d agoIn fact the name "relational database" implies there are other kinds.