gordon@mead.UUCP (Gordon Edwards) (08/23/90)
Does anyone know anything about an OODBMS named ObjectStore? It was developed by Object Design, Inc. and reportedly allows applications to be developed in C++. Please, post followups rather than replying by e-mail. Our feed is supposed to change any time and my e-mail address may not work. Thanks. -- Gordon Edwards Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
noren@dinl.uucp (Charles Noren) (08/24/90)
In article <1207@meaddata.mead.UUCP> mead!gordon@uccba.uc.edu writes: >Does anyone know anything about an OODBMS named ObjectStore? It was developed >by Object Design, Inc. and reportedly allows applications to be developed in >C++. We are using ObjectStore by Object Design, Inc., so is another project in our company (who alerted us to the product). It is a **very** fast and very easy-to-use Object-Oriented Database Management System. Now I am an Objective-C bigot, but this database with its seemless interface to C++ (and being the fastest according to some internal studies) caused us to start using C++ so we could use the full features of the database (it really pains me to say that -- I am looking into interfacing Objective-C to it on my own time). How ObjectStore looks to your application is as follows: 1. You declare the root object of your application that will be your handle into the database as "persistent". This key word, which is similar to the C key word "static", declares that the life of your object will persist over the life of the database. 2. Referencing the database objects is done within a "transaction block" construct, that is a new key-word block statement with C++ curly-braces {}. 3. Adding new objects to the root object is done by using an overloaded C++ new operator (which has a corresponding overloaded delete operator). Currently, Object Design provides a C++ compiler with the hooks into the database. It is a version of AT&T C-front with enhancements. One of the major enhancements is parameterized types. This alone makes their compiler worth while (in fact, AT&T is going to use their implementation of parameterized-types). Other enhancements allow for nice query capability to their aggregate classes, and a means to declare an inverse relationship. In the future, Object Design plans to allow other C++ compilers to interface, particularly when other compilers implement parameterized types. Object Design also provides a kernal group of classes that are extremely useful in creating and manipulating C++ objects in and out of the database. (You could use the C++ compiler and class libraries without any database features and have a "normal" C++ application). With ObjectStore, you have the full expressive power (plus more) of C++ to create general complex object structures. This alone provides what I want in manipulating the kind of objects I'm maintaining in a Network Management System. With the seaching capabilities they provide through the query expressions, classes, and iterators on aggregates I have the expressive power I want in queries without SQL. ObjectStore is in beta right now, however I find that the beta of ObjectStore compares better in quality to some of the released software of some other OODBMS's. Object Design can be reached at (617) 270-9797 (Eastern USA) or (213) 412-8411 (Los Angeles). -- Chuck Noren NET: dinl!noren@ncar.ucar.edu US-MAIL: Martin Marietta I&CS, MS XL8058, P.O. Box 1260, Denver, CO 80201-1260 Phone: (303) 971-7930