Re: Which packages will hold up the release?

[Tom <tb.31009.nospam@comcast.net>]

On Thu, Oct 09, 2003 at 11:37:22PM -0700, Ross Boylan wrote:
> There are some mathematical tools that might be useful in working with
> some of these issues (I know them from models of social networks).

When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.  Since I do SQL for 
a living I'd put all the data in a SQL database and use a technique 
called a "parts-explosion table" (see SQL For Smarties by Joe Celko).

It helps you express recursive relationships in SQL.  It helps when 
parts contain parts contain parts contain parts... and you need to know 
all possible parts affected by a part.

For datasets the size of the package database it'd be a piece of cake 
with PostGres.