Hello All Image/SQL and Allbase/SQL users:

Earlier today Debbie Lawson-Kirkwood from Interex made
the announcement on 3000-L that the polls are now OPEN
for "pre-SIB" voting on individual SIG ballots.  URLs are:

http://oblina.csillc.com/sigs      or
http://207.103.9.100/sigs

I add my thanks to fellow Image/SQL Advisory Committee
(ISAC) member Joe Geiser of CSILLC, for the work he did
to make this ballot process available to all HP e3000 users...
Also thanks to Interex Stephanie Gray and Debbie;  for their
efforts to expedite the overall SIB process this year to meet
CSY's target of having the final combined SIB results by end
of March...  And can't pass up opportunity to note that data
from these ballots is being stored in an Image/SQL database.
   :-)

CSY said they WILL be committing some Lab engineering
resources to work on user-requested enhancements that
come out of the SIB process this year....  So if you are ever
going to put in your $0.02 worth and vote, NOW IS THE TIME.


Some additional info WRT TurboIMAGE and HPSQL ballots
(if you are now using or think you will use Image/SQL and not
just TurboIMAGE, you need to vote on BOTH ballots):

(1)    Voting on the TurboIMAGE and HPSQL ballots will
remain open until 17:00 on Friday 9 March;  i.e.:  Two weeks.

(2)    Debbie noted that "the top 10 issues from each SIG
ballot will be considered for placement on the Annual Interex
MPE System Improvement Ballot."  The TurboIMAGE ballot
only has 10 items, ** BUT **:  PLEASE STILL VOTE.  While
with the new SIB process ranking of ballot items by individual
SIG votes is not the only criteria, I expect it will still be given
significant weight;  and will be a key factors considered by
the MPE Forum and SIG Leader committee that will be mix-
mastering SIG results to come up with the final 25 items for
the 2001 SIB.

(3)    Joe helpfully posted links to all "extended descriptions /
additional detail" that he had received to date at the above
URLs.  The Chair of SIGImage/SQL (i.e.: me) is delinquent;
in that do to pressure of "other events" I have some additional
clarification on two more items that I did not get to Joe before
balloting opened...  Plus just received more info this morning.
Sorry for tardiness;  better late than never;  I post to 3000-L
to get quickest and widest exposure.

(4)    TurboIMAGE and HPSQL items that make it to the final
SIB may have further clarification attached.  For purposes of
this "pre-SIB" SIG vote, if there are items that you still have
questions on that are not answered by the item wording on
the ballot, the links at above URL, or attached additional info:
Please post to 3000-L and / or directly to me;  will try and
answer questions as they arise....

Ken Sletten
SIGImage/SQL Chair
==========================  TEXT ATTACHMENT


SIGImage/SQL 2001 "pre-SIB" TurboIMAGE item # 2:

Update DBSCHEMA so it can be single tool needed to
CREATE a TurboIMAGE database:  Be able to specify all
DBUTIL parameters; make it fully SQL-aware; flag
ALLBASE / SQL99 reserved words with WARNing.

Initial R&D Lab estimate is that this item is a "medium" effort.


This item combines what previously were three separate
enhancement requests into one:

Intent of updating DBSCHEMA to support all DBUTIL flags
and settings is to "catch up" with DBUTIL.  TurboIMAGE and
DBUTIL have continued to evolve, while DBSCHEMA has for
the most part remained static, and has been "left behind".

Making DBSCHEMA fully SQL-aware and flagging all SQL
reserved words would better integrate the "SQL" part of
Image/SQL in the database creation process;  and would
catch conflicts up-front instead of only later when an IMAGE
database is subsequently ATTACHed to a DBE.  It is clearly
better practice to catch conflicts sooner rather than later;
since the effort to go back and make corrections after the
fact in this case could be substantial.
-----------------------------------------------------------------


SIGImage/SQL 2001 "pre-SIB" TurboIMAGE item # 6:

Make IMAGE thread aware / thread safe.

Initial R&D Lab estimate is that this item is a "large" effort.


It was announced at the SIGImage/SQL meeting at SIG3000
that the bundled 32-bit ODBC driver ODBCLink/SE is now
multi-threaded.  Since all three of the established third-party
HP e3000 ODBC drivers (ODBC32, ODBCLink, LINKWAY)
have been multi-threaded for some time, this should solve the
multi-threading problem from the ODBC driver perspective.

HOWEVER:  The above does NOT address a major remaining
issue:  Internally, TurboIMAGE itself does not support multi-
threading.  I.e.:  If a process has a database OPEN, currently
this 'open' cannot be passed down to process threads / a son
process / another program.  This enhancement is to allow
threads and / or another program inherit the database 'open',
as long as the opened database is in a 'quiet' / stable state;
i.e:  No ongoing transactions, no locks, and (perhaps) etc. (as
a practical matter making this work reliably while the database is in the
process of being actively updated and / or while locks are in place is
extremely difficult if not impossible).  With the
e3000 moving more and more into the web environment where
threads are routine, this has become a more important issue.

Note this item incorporates what has up to now been a
separate item on the TurboIMAGE ballot:  Ability to pass
DBOPEN to son process if database is stable.  It is expected
that solving the problem for threads could be done so that it
would also address the issue of being able to pass a DBOPEN
to another program....
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