Back In The Day
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In the halcyon days before SQL Databases(!) we worked on a system using ISAM databases. We needed to develop a system for real estate agents. They needed to be able to search for properties matching their clients criteria. (3 bedrooms, < $50,000, swimming pool etc.) The award for thinking-outside-the-square went (I think it was his idea anyway) to Phred. we created a column in the db which was 4096 characters long - or 32768 bits. we created a table with an integer 'index' column containing a value from 0 to 32767, and a description each index column's description would be something like '3 or more bedrooms', '$50,000 or less' or 'Swimming Pool' (they could be user modified) So, to match records against criteria, each record was simply read, and a logical AND applied against the user-requirements 4096 characters and the value of the field. This stable scan was written in Assembler (this task was given to me- meaning I had to learn assembler overnight!) for speed - and boy, was it fast! In the days when any real estate agent would have had to run an overnight report to get that sort of information, we could do it in real time, while the agent sat with the buyer.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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In the halcyon days before SQL Databases(!) we worked on a system using ISAM databases. We needed to develop a system for real estate agents. They needed to be able to search for properties matching their clients criteria. (3 bedrooms, < $50,000, swimming pool etc.) The award for thinking-outside-the-square went (I think it was his idea anyway) to Phred. we created a column in the db which was 4096 characters long - or 32768 bits. we created a table with an integer 'index' column containing a value from 0 to 32767, and a description each index column's description would be something like '3 or more bedrooms', '$50,000 or less' or 'Swimming Pool' (they could be user modified) So, to match records against criteria, each record was simply read, and a logical AND applied against the user-requirements 4096 characters and the value of the field. This stable scan was written in Assembler (this task was given to me- meaning I had to learn assembler overnight!) for speed - and boy, was it fast! In the days when any real estate agent would have had to run an overnight report to get that sort of information, we could do it in real time, while the agent sat with the buyer.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Back in the days when a PC was 2 floppy disks we used an app called askSam that sounds similar to ISAM. We used it for media research. I was so intrigued I ended up becoming a programmer and eventually leaving the media research industry. There is an elegance to those KISS solutions that programming today doesn't normally appreciate.
"You get that on the big jobs."
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Back in the days when a PC was 2 floppy disks we used an app called askSam that sounds similar to ISAM. We used it for media research. I was so intrigued I ended up becoming a programmer and eventually leaving the media research industry. There is an elegance to those KISS solutions that programming today doesn't normally appreciate.
"You get that on the big jobs."
2 floppy disks?! You were lucky! ISAM is Indexed Sequential Access Method - essentially a way to specify fields on sequential files as indexes, and methods to retrieve those records based on those indexes. I never heard of AskSam before - but that sounds like a specific tool, rather than a methodology. It's interesting, though, how something like that can steer your entire career!
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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In the halcyon days before SQL Databases(!) we worked on a system using ISAM databases. We needed to develop a system for real estate agents. They needed to be able to search for properties matching their clients criteria. (3 bedrooms, < $50,000, swimming pool etc.) The award for thinking-outside-the-square went (I think it was his idea anyway) to Phred. we created a column in the db which was 4096 characters long - or 32768 bits. we created a table with an integer 'index' column containing a value from 0 to 32767, and a description each index column's description would be something like '3 or more bedrooms', '$50,000 or less' or 'Swimming Pool' (they could be user modified) So, to match records against criteria, each record was simply read, and a logical AND applied against the user-requirements 4096 characters and the value of the field. This stable scan was written in Assembler (this task was given to me- meaning I had to learn assembler overnight!) for speed - and boy, was it fast! In the days when any real estate agent would have had to run an overnight report to get that sort of information, we could do it in real time, while the agent sat with the buyer.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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My first house was bought in the UK and cost me 17,000 sterling as I recall. and no, it wasn't wattle and daub, or a dug-out cave. it was a pleasant terraced house close to the sea front in sunny Worthing * * anyone who knows worthing will try to tell you it is not only not sunny, but also inhabited generally by the elderly, smells of seaweed, has some of the most stoney beaches on the English coast, and is generally the place people go to to live out their remaining years. This is true, and goes a long way toward explaining the cost of housing there.
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')