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55 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
<!--$Id: data.so,v 10.1 2000/09/22 18:23:58 bostic Exp $-->
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<!--Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by Sleepycat Software, Inc.-->
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<!--All rights reserved.-->
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Berkeley DB Reference Guide: An introduction to data management</title>
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<meta name="description" content="Berkeley DB: An embedded database programmatic toolkit.">
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<meta name="keywords" content="embedded,database,programmatic,toolkit,b+tree,btree,hash,hashing,transaction,transactions,locking,logging,access method,access methods,java,C,C++">
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</head>
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<body bgcolor=white>
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<table><tr valign=top>
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<td><h3><dl><dt>Berkeley DB Reference Guide:<dd>Introduction</dl></h3></td>
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<td width="1%"><a href="../../ref/toc.html"><img src="../../images/ref.gif" alt="Ref"></a><a href="../../ref/intro/terrain.html"><img src="../../images/next.gif" alt="Next"></a>
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</td></tr></table>
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<p>
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<h1 align=center>An introduction to data management</h1>
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<p>Cheap, powerful computing and networking have created countless new
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applications that could not have existed a decade ago. The advent of
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the World-Wide Web, and its influence in driving the Internet into homes
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and businesses, is one obvious example. Equally important, though, is
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the from large, general-purpose desktop and server computers
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toward smaller, special-purpose devices with built-in processing and
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communications services.
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<p>As computer hardware has spread into virtually every corner of our
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lives, of course, software has followed. Software developers today are
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building applications not just for conventional desktop and server
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environments, but also for handheld computers, home appliances,
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networking hardware, cars and trucks, factory floor automation systems,
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and more.
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<p>While these operating environments are diverse, the problems that
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software engineers must solve in them are often strikingly similar. Most
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systems must deal with the outside world, whether that means
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communicating with users or controlling machinery. As a result, most
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need some sort of I/O system. Even a simple, single-function system
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generally needs to handle multiple tasks, and so needs some kind of
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operating system to schedule and manage control threads. Also, many
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computer systems must store and retrieve data to track history, record
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configuration settings, or manage access.
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<p>Data management can be very simple. In some cases, just recording
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configuration in a flat text file is enough. More often, though,
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programs need to store and search a large amount of data, or
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structurally complex data. Database management systems are tools that
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programmers can use to do this work quickly and efficiently using
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off-the-shelf software.
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<p>Of course, database management systems have been around for a long time.
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Data storage is a problem dating back to the earliest days of computing.
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Software developers can choose from hundreds of good,
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commercially-available database systems. The problem is selecting the
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one that best solves the problems that their applications face.
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<table><tr><td><br></td><td width="1%"><a href="../../ref/toc.html"><img src="../../images/ref.gif" alt="Ref"></a><a href="../../ref/intro/terrain.html"><img src="../../images/next.gif" alt="Next"></a>
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</td></tr></table>
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<p><font size=1><a href="http://www.sleepycat.com">Copyright Sleepycat Software</a></font>
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</body>
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</html>
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