AW Database issues

Jerry, its good to hear from you again. Looks like I'm moving in the wrong direction from your perspective.

I've worked with relational data bases, 3rd normal form and all that, though it has been a while. I'm also slightly familiar with object mappings--Sun's tools provide some high-level tools to do the same. But the element that is missing from all this is time.

AW has three big aspects: a change-based database, an object model (TKCS) and the wiki user interface. I've been working with this stuff for 4+ years now and only slowly have I come to realize these distinct aspects.

For the database, I just don't see how it can be standardized. The mapping to bsddb really had way too much overhead. The biggest problem with the current implementation is that it (WDB) really needs to be ported to C or C++. (I've just finished the profiling. There are a few things I can do that will help, but I don't expect too much.)

The object model currently stinks. The new tables proposal would be a big help, while also reducing the database load for small wikis.

The wiki code itself is pretty rude and crude. My first priority is to clean up the transactional code, so I can gain some real robustness. But it is the name resolution engine which probably needs the most work. Plus we really need the master interface to make some of the more interesting features of AW accessible to more users.

And then there are the advanced features, which I don't even want to think about for a few months. But a lot depends here on how well the journal is implemented.

Too much methinks, for one person. As for the element of time, subversion probably handles it better than anything else, but it is still too simple a model for AW.

We're breaking a lot of new ground here, and I don't think needlessly. I am very happy with WDB, at least from the perspective of disk use. If we can fix the high CPU overhead, we would see some remarkable results.

More and more, I'm thinking I need to put the AW code under subversion.

On a more personal front, I may need to go to Raipur. There's been a death in the family and I feel that I am needed there.

Bill