I asked for comments in my previous posting regarding SIGIMAGE at IPROF.
Denys Beauchemin called a few minutes ago and mentioned that I forgot to
include the SIGIMAGE ballot. That oversight is corrected here -- with Denys'
assistance.
 
The top two enhancement requests at this year's SIGIMAGE meeting were the
addition of a DBQUIESCE intrinsic and the installation of the DDL (data
description language) that will begin to complete the transition of IMAGE
into a fully functioning RDBMS.
 
The DBQUIESCE intrinsic will allow third-party vendors, as well as HP itself,
to begin to perform some real magic on the database -- while users are (at
least nominally) still logged on and have their databases open.
 
The top two enhancement requests are closely related to each other. Indeed,
DDL requires DBQUIESCE. The DDL enhancements of being able to add and drop
dataitems, datasets, and indexes are consistently touted as among the most
attractive attributes of relational databases. However, the capacity for this
sort of database restructuring in a live database are obviously limited in
regard to what most people have come to expect from products such as Adager,
DBGeneral, Flexibase, and DBChange -- but changes such as (i) the capacity to
add new dataitems to end of a dataset, (ii) the capacity to add or drop
indexes, (iii) the capacity to add new detail datasets, will be done on-line,
in real time, and without having to have users or processes be clear of the
database first.
 
Wirt Atmar
 
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The following is the ranking of the SIGIMAGE ballot:
 
1 1165 Provide DBQuiesce intrinsic
2 1023 Ability to add/drop datasets, indexes and items
3 869 Provide dynamic master dataset expansion
4 695 Extend IMAGE/SQL data access to KSAM and MPE files
5 548 Improvement of DBA functions for managin AuthIDs.
6 544 Tracking files associated with databases
7 479 Provide ability to retain/reuse attach parameters across a
detach/attach
8 459 Read-only Dblock mode  (someone placed 100 on this one.)
9 426 Provide ability to enable/disable SQL access without detaching
10 411 IMAGE measurement interface for performance data
 
11 406 Multi-record/Multiset DBGET/DBPUT/DBUPDATE
11 406 Multiple database dynamic transactions
13 389 GETUPDATE to update record w/o DBGET
14 262 Provide ability to better influence SQL query optimizer
15 261 Support SQL NULL item
16 222 Support SQL savepoint
17 220 Performance improvements with DBUPDATE of sort fields
18 200 Dynamic transactions in QUERY
19 197 IMAGE/SQL transactions spanning ALLBASE and IMAGE
20 192 Provide default value for data items
21 163 Tool memory area
22 148 DBCONTROL/DBINFO access in QUERY
 
 
 
New items for the list:
 
1- Support of BLOBs
2- Cap changes w/o ATTACH/DETACH  (this seems more for ADAGER)
3- Date/Time datatypes
4- Ability to specify flags and settings in DBSCHEMA
5- Non-destructive creator access across groups for DBUTIL
6- Global files
7- User setting of maximum chain lengths
8- DBINFO mode to return fully qualified DB name
9- DBINFO from QUERY
10- DBGET using record # in QUERY
11- DCE compatibility for IMAGE (security, directory services, etc.)
12- SQL-intelligent DBSCHEMA
13- Make CIUPDATE the default
14 Have DBUTIL ignore file equations.
15 SHOW INDEX command to show other than composite keys
16- MULTIFIND update/delete
17- Enable rename of IMAGE table in SQL
18- Find FIELDA = FIELDB in QUERY
 
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