Abordnet

look to GT.M and Cache if you want to do serious work. Actually, there is one other commercial implementation called M21 (see www.m21.uk.com) which runs on Unix/Linux. I'll take a look.

~As I've said elsewhere recently, if Google's recent announcement of ~their App Engine can suddenly turn a previously unknown hierarchical ~data_base_ (their BigTable data_base_) and a relatively obscure _script_ing ~language with an unusual syntax (Python) into the next cool thing, ~perhaps there's actually some hope for M !! What do you mean here ? That by promoting their own 'BigTable' stuff, Google could consequently relaunch the hierarchical data_base_ systems bizness ?

~As I've said elsewhere recently, if Google's recent announcement of ~their App Engine can suddenly turn a previously unknown hierarchical ~data_base_ (their BigTable data_base_) and a relatively obscure _script_ing ~language with an unusual syntax (Python) into the next cool thing, ~perhaps there's actually some hope for M !! What do you mean here ? That by promoting their own 'BigTable' stuff, Google could consequently relaunch the hierarchical data_base_ systems bizness ? What I was really getting at was that it's rather ironic that a force like Google can manage to turn some really quite obscure stuff into tomorrow's cool technology.  I've been saying for years that the MUMPS technology is the natural technology for web development by a very significant margin (it's the reason we wrote We_b_link__ in the first place), but nobody (certainly not ISC) has ever been able to convince a sceptical world that such an obscure data_base_ (hierarchical of course) and an obscure _script_ing language with an unusual syntax (the MUMPS programming language) are worth looking at.   Yet, I'm pretty sure that Google App Engine is resulting in a lot of people finding out about Python: the very same people who probably would have previously looked down their noses at it.  Suddenly it's the coolest thing in town, because everything Google touches is cool by definition (well that's the general perception out there). When you look at the underlying similarities between BigTable and MUMPS, I just think what a shame nobody at Google got to hear about the MUMPS data_base_ before they embarked on reinventing such a similar wheel. The point is that despite all the rampant religious fervour about proper languages and data_base_s, with the right impetus, it really is possible for them to be pushed aside by something more appropriate to the job. I suppose if we're really lucky, Google's BigTable may re-awaken people to the fact that the hierarchical data_base_ has some very significant things to offer after all (having been swept aside by the religious zeal of the relational mob since the late 70s/early 80s). Whether that's seized on by the likes of ISC will remain to be seen, but their strenuous efforts over the last 10 years to try to conceal the true nature of Cache's underlying data_base_ technology would perhaps suggest that's unlikely.