Record-access libraries (Was: Re: VMS vs. UNIX file system)

[Barry Shein]

Eric, I disagree and think you dismiss the value of record access
libraries too glibly. There's more to it than fixed and blocked record
formats.

Consider various associative schemes like ISAM or B-TREE management of
records by keys (dbm is similar to this under Unix.) These can be very
critical to manageable performance in certain areas, particularly the
management of large numbers of records where lookup is only by a very
few keys and quick insertion of new key/record pairs is needed. Your
typical example is a customer data base where lookup/insertion keys
is based on some customer code.

Particular implementation strategies are a whole other kettle of fish.

	-Barry Shein, ||Encore||