Rick Grehan

When your next application calls for a database backend, stop for a moment and consider another possibility: an object database. As we hope to show in this article, an object database may not only simplify coding chores, but its capabilities may enable application solutions that you would otherwise not thought of. Of course, the most apparent benefit you'll get from using an object database is the fact that you won't have to wrestle with two paradigms - object and relational - in a single application. The design of your application code and the design of your database will be object-oriented throughout. However, the advantages you'll derive from an object database go beyond the simple fact that an object database is more easily incorporated into a project already written in an object- oriented language. One exceptional advantage of an object database is its ability t... (more)

The OO Database Advantage

Here's a question: If you write your application's code in an OO language - such as C#, VB.NET, or managed C++ - why not write database query and update code in the same language? It would certainly make life simpler, wouldn't it? At the very least, you'd only have to hold one language in your head - not your programming language and SQL. That's the very least of the advantages you'd gain by choosing an OO database instead of an RDBMS. The metaphor "impedance mismatch" has frequently been used to illustrate the problems that arise from using a relational database as the back end... (more)

Mixing Data & Data Structures in an Object Database

When your next Java application calls for a database backend, before you reach for JDBC and a relational database, stop for a moment and consider another possibility: an object database. As we hope to show in this article, an object database may not only simplify coding chores, but its capabilities may enable application solutions that you would otherwise not thought of. Of course, the most apparent benefit you'll get from using an object database is the fact that you won't have to wrestle with two paradigms - object and relational - in a single application. The design of your ap... (more)