[Persistence-sig] getting started

[Jean-Claude Wippler]

Jeremy Hylton wrote:
>Introductions: Please tell us about your interest in the persistence

I have a long-standing interest in persistence and scripting.  Finding a
middle ground between the relational data model, object storage,
structured storage, and plain serialization is a key area of focus for
me.  I'm self-employed, and have been so for well over a decade, with a
mix of working on commissioned projects and doing research on persistence
and scripting (more and more so).

What I would hope to see happen here, is a generalization away from being
purely OO (which has no intrinsic connection to persistence), purely
single-language (because data often lives *far* longer than language
technologies do), or even purely relational (which provides insufficient
expressiveness for algorithmic optimizations).  I think the main focus
needs to be on data representation, in such a way that language access
and memory-mapped files can effectively interface to each other. 
Ultimately, it may affect the very core, e.g. PyObject changes.

As designer of the MetaKit embedded database, which binds to several
languages, has many years of production use (maintaining full datafile
compatibility), and is finding its way into Roundup (Python), Starkits
(Tcl), and the AddressBook of every Mac (C++), I can't help but think
that there has to be something to an approach which focuses on
generality-through-simplicity.

So much for the blurb.  If this forum is about finding a genuine common
ground for persistence and scripting, not just ZODB and/or Python, then I
would love to help make things happen, and contribute serious time and
code (FWIW).

Jean-Claude Wippler <jcw@equi4.com>
Equi4 Software - http://www.equi4.com