Re: dpkg binary dbase (was Re: Debian vs. Red Hat)
On Fri, Sep 08, 2000 at 01:26:16PM +0200, Juli-Manel Merino Vidal wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 07, 2000 at 02:37:03PM -0500, John Hasler wrote:
>
> > Bruce Sass writes:
> > > I want to be able to manually add and edit entries in the DB (i.e., given
> >
> > I'm not convinced that you can write a special bin editor that you can
> > guarantee will be able to fix all the ways that a bin database could get
> > screwed up.
>
> The bin editor could be just a simple conversion program from the
> binary to the text mode one, then edit the file, and at last,
> reconvert to the binary mode.
Having read all this, I'm not convinced it would be a bad idea. I
come from Hasler's point of view too, and am not convinced it
could/should be done. There's a reason why every Unix box on the
planet has some kind of vi available in single user mode.
That said, it's also true that a good database leverages a lot of
power, in ways that most people don't really get 'til it's explained
to them. If the integrity is maintained, things become damn near
magical once things begin to scale.
I'd say play with it, see what you can come up with, how you can
bullet proof it, and what its failure modes are. comp.risks' archives
may help ...
Besides, ASCII is just yet another code/binary format. Designed for
human readability, yes, but tell that to an illiterate teenager ...
--
keelingNO@SPAM.spots.ab.ca (Stephen) TopQuark Software & Serv. Enquire within.
[sed 's/NO@SPAM./@/g'] Contract programmer, server bum.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
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