Document database (was Re: Writing a GNOME mail client.)

["Braden N. McDaniel" <braden shadow net>]

Alexander Peuchert wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, 19 Apr 1999 atmczen@ibm.net wrote:
> 
> > Hello Braden,
> >
> > On Sun, 18 Apr 1999 04:26:10 -0400
> > "Braden N. McDaniel" <braden@shadow.net> wrote:
> >
> > > This also bears some striking similarity to an idea Cooper expresses in
> > > his excellent book, _About Face_; though like Scott Wimer's description,
> > > Cooper's idea encompasses all application-client documents.
> > Sounds really close to what I want.  'all application-client
> > documents' is the key word that caught my eyes.
> >
> > > The database Cooper describes includes a few other goodies, like a
> > > sophisticated document history system to provide a "persistent undo".
> > Can you elaborate a little more about those 'goodies' for the list
> > members?  It sounds like something we can all benefit from.  It also
> > sounds like something we can implement with a database and variety of
> > CORBA based components.
> 
> It sounds very strange to me that a central database is proposed after
> the Gnome project is about two years of age.

Maybe it would be better if such an effort had been underway from the
beginning. Maybe, then, GNOME wouldn't have begun to become usable for
another year.<g>

I agree that it's odd that this didn't come up a lot sooner. But then,
GNOME in general is not exactly rife with new ideas in terms of UI
design.

> Some more proposal concernig that:
> 
> - Using ACAP as a central configuration database( one configuration for
> all apps)
> 
> - also store user data in a database( develop a new save panel for storing
> something in database):
>         1) I'm forced to use Windows from time to time =:-(
>            Every app has a different location to store its user data.
>            (Sometimes I can't find a file 'cause I can't remember the
>            default value that was used that time...) Some apps use user
>            dir, others use the apps location, and so on ...

The best Microsoft has done in this regard is a "My Documents" folder,
of which applications may or may not make themselves aware. The disc
file system is an ugly thing. It can be purtied up with long filenames
with mixed case and spaces in them, but those superficial measures to
not address its underlying deficiencies for document storage.

>         2) If we use a database for storage, the user could search for
>            files in it: All pictures I store last friday, where are all my
>            letters( infinite possibilities ...)
>         3) There could be some kind of revisioning: Shit, I altered the
>            report and need the version before ..
>         4) Microsoft would surely copy such a thing ...

Probably... But only if they think they have to to stay competitive, of
course. _About Face_ is Windows-oriented in its presentation and
includes a glowing quote from Charles Simonyi on the cover, yet
remarkably few of the ideas it expresses have made it into Windows or
Windows applications. And the book was published in 1995.

Braden