pv9y@vax5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU (10/24/89)
Hi all,
I'm currently doing some research for a large photo project here at Cornell.
The requirement is that the database be able to search among 100,000
records of approximately ten fields (one of which would be general keywords)
without a loss in speed (ie under 30 seconds would be nice, although I don't
know how realistic). That first requirement is probably easily solved.
However, since this is a photograph collection, it would be really nice to
be able to display the photos in some way, probably with a videodisk
player. So videodisk access is another pseudo-requirement.
After those two requirements, the game becomes wide open. It doesn't
particularly matter which platform is used, although PC or Mac would be
easiest (although something like Oracle shouldn't be ruled out). The system
should be easy to work with since the database is not going to be
particularly complicated.
My initial thoughts on the matter are as follows. Using the Mac would be
ideal for this dept because they already have some Macs and it is easier to
program nice interfaces on the Mac than the PC. In addition, Macs are
popular at Cornell, so researchers will be more familiar with them. On the
Mac, there are plenty of fast databases (though testimonials or benchmarks
comparing them would be nice, since I don't have hard data at all) but
hooking to a videodisk seems to be still a bit difficult. 4D might do it,
and Oracle can use HyperCard as a front end (and HyperCard can hook to
videodisks easily). Otherwise I haven't heard of much. I would like to say
that HyperCard could handle the project, but I don't think it can search
quickly enough with such a large database. There are several database
add-ons for HyperCard which I only know the names of, HyBASE, HyperHit,
GridFile, and a faster search XCMD, Xearch. Has anyone used any of these
HyperCard products? Is there a good reason to avoid them that I'm missing?
In general, please recommend (or warn me about) anything that might fit
the bill that you have used. Please send mail if possible (VAX5 is being
flaky about mail in and out), and I will summarize everything if I get
enough to bother with. Please reply especially if you know something about
a similar project somewhere else.
Thanks a lot!
Adam