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K U D O O F T H E M O N T H
"I stumbled into db4o's highly addictive ease of use and power ... I was forced to eat elephants for too long, but right now I love my chicken and db4o is one fine bird."
--Aziz K., 6/24/06
A R T I C L E S
-- db4o V5.5 : NEW TOOLS FOR PERFORMANCE TUNING --
db4objects has released version 5.5 as a development release, available from the db4o Download Center.
The new version features a series of utilities and optimizations that help developers to better understand what happens inside db4o and thus build software products which perform faster:
db4o Diagnostics Spots Application Performance Potentials
Expert users nearly always find possibilities to improve performance significantly with one or two db4o configuration calls, often with suggestions provided by the engine itself (e.g., "This query is not running against an indexed field.") To make performance tuning even easier , db4o V5.5 now features "Diagnostics" - all you have to do to use it is add a DiagnosticListener.
Currently, four diagnostic routines are implemented, and more will be added in the future. "ClassHasNoFields", for instance, will tell you about classes in your persistent class hierarchy that have no persistent fields. It usually makes sense to remove theses classes to avoid the overhead for the maintenance of class indexes and thus make your application run faster.
More here.
Db4oAdmin Command Line Utility Spots Unoptimized Native Queries
V5.5 db4o features an improved version of Db4oAdmin - the .NET command line utility. Using this tool you can pre-optimizate Native Queries and thus deploy your applications without Db4oTools.dll, the assembly where the db4o runtime Native Queries optimizer lives.
Pre-optimized Native Queries execute faster since no time will be spent with code analysis in runtime. More important is the ability to tell exactly which Native Queries won't be optimized and why - before you execute any code. The tool will even show you the bytecode for the optimized Native Query, so that unoptimized queries can easily be spotted and refactored.
More here.
Indexes and Attributes, Annotations
db4o v5.5 now allows developers to use attributes (.NET) and annotations (Java) to specify which fields should be indexed at runtime. The use of metadata is helpful for instance with refactoring, because you can express an index configuration entirely in native source code rather than using strings.
More here.
Mono Version Now With Generics
Version 5.5 for Mono now supports .Net 2.0's most compelling features such as generics, because it compiles with gmcs, Mono's C# compiler for generics.
More here.
-- FIRST db4o USER CONFERENCE CONCLUDED --
The first annual db4o User Conference has successfully concluded. Users from 18 countries and all continents of the world convened in London, U.K. for the two-day session on July 10 and 11. The conference featured keynotes, workshops, product roadmap discussions, and the launch of db4objects' "Community 2.0" initiative (see below). It is the first and only gathering of the entire core contributor team and db4o users under one roof.
"I learned some really helpful use cases that will allow me to integrate db4o more effectively in my own projects. "says Ulysses Wong from Wireless Intellect Labs, Singapore. "I am really impressed with the diversity of applications in which other developers are using db4o - especially for their core development activities. I look forward to attending next year!"
Sean DeMartino from INTEL and Sebastian Hubrich from BOSCH Sigpack presented real-life use case studies with db4o: Intel uses db4o to speed up application development without contorting OO application design through relational constraints. Bosch uses db4o to cut commissioning time of the world's most advanced pick-and-place robotic systems used to package products like apple pies, cookies, and pharmaceuticals.
Keynote sessions included db4o's founder and chief software architect Carl Rosenberger on the "State of the Object", where he shared the genesis of db4o. CEO Christof Wittig spoke about the "State of db4objects", reflecting how the company managed to build the world's most popular object database in no time. Both underlined the importance of the user-driven approach for making db4o as widely used and successful as it is today.
-- "COMMUNITY 2.0", dVP INITIATIVES LAUNCHED --
To set the stage, the db4o User Conference (dUC) opened with Andrew Cowie, member of Linux Australia, speaking about db4objects' current and future community policies. db4objects then officially launched its extended community infrastructure ("community 2.0") and its community member recognition program dVP.
The company honored 33 db4o Most Valued Professionals (dVPs) for their community contributions with the launch of the new dVP program. db4o Most Valued Professionals are recognized individuals with expertise in the db4o product who actively participate in our community to share their knowledge and expertise with other db4o users.
More about the dVP Program, its benefits, the selection criteria, and the list of th 2007 award recipients here here.
The "Community 2.0" infrastructure features more extensions of the Developer Community platform, specifically Wikis. Organized as Project spaces, members of the community can now showcase their db4o-related projects or participate in other projects easily. Example projects include ETH Zurich's Avon project, a semantic data management system based on db4o; the world's first podcast channel on object databases; and Oomega, a model driven approach to simplify software engineering.
To register your own project in the db4o community please contact us.
-- db4o's COMMUNITY-DRIVEN, AGILE PRODUCT ROADMAP PUBLISHED --
db4o is an open and community-driven product. The main sponsor, db4objects, has subscribed to the notion of agile programming to enable instant reflection of new learnings within the developer and the user communities. At any time, the community can agree to adopt the most effective way to deliver value to the product's users, rather than sticking to a pre-formulated product roadmap, that ultimately may or may not reflect the needs of a market moving as fast as ours, once the product is actually shipped.
As a result, the db4o team has adopted an entirely open, user driven, and agile approach to determine, communicate, and to change its roadmap - accessible to all registered community members at any time.
Under this URL, db4o's core developer team shares all its development tasks, milestones, bug reports and other development-project relevant information, and shows the status of completion of all major enhancements, bugs and other tasks going forward. The tool selected is Jira, which is a non-intrusive project management tool that has become widely adopted in open source and agile development projects, e.g. in Apache, Spring, and Hibernate.
Jira now showcases the current roadmap planning for db4o in 2006. Based on the db4o User Survey, in which more than 1,000 users participated, and the discussions at the db4o User Conference in London, the core team has now come up with a balanced order of engineering priorities.
In response to user demand, the reminder of 2006 will be dominated by performance related work. The next projects will be carried out on fast B-Trees for field indices, OR queries for faster joined queries, and fast defragmentation. A core split and refactoring will enable the seamless implementation of transparent activation and extensive improvements on db4o's client/server mode going forward.
In addition, db4objects has committed to deliver against the most frequently requested wish - an improved ObjectManager/Database Inspector, based on user suggestions and a design session at the dUC - as well as updates on the dRS, including a version for .NET. Last and not least, db4objects will significantly increase its investment in documentation, which should result in further productivity enhancements and shorter learning curves even for most advanced db4o users.
-- TED NEWARD: THE VIETNAM OF COMPUTER SCIENCE --
In a widely discussed blog post, Ted Neward has compared the use of ORMs to the war in Vietnam, arguing, that ORMs like Hibernate and Toplink are subject to the law of diminishing returns. He raises the question, whether the use of ORMs to overcome the O/R mismatch will eventually hit a wall in its own complexity. He concludes that abandonment of object-orientation or a wholehearted embrace, like db4o, would be possible outcomes in the future.
At the db4o User Conference, attendees had the opportunity to meet Ted Neward in person and discuss his provocative thoughts. Ted's dUC keynote, "Objects All the Way Down," highlighted that few people really understand object-orientation as Alan Kay (the creator of Smalltalk and generally considered the "Father of Objects") envisioned it. In his presentation, Ted spoke about how the original vision for objects was intended, how we can use modern tools (like db4o and the Naked Objects UI framework) to achieve that vision, and where and when that vision is appropriate in a world of distributed components and service-orientation.
L O O K I N G I N T O T H E M I R R O R
Press coverage about db4o since the last newsletter:
"Jerry Fiddler Joins db4objects Board of Directors"
Enterprise Open Source News, July 4, 2006
"Wind River's Founding CEO Invests into Object DB Venture "
LinuxToday Japan, June 28, 2006, by Naoko Yamakata (In Japanese)
"Dual-licensed object database company expands board"
LinuxDevices.com, June 26, 2006
"db4objects expands board, investors"
CNet News.com, June 26, 2006, by Martin LaMonica
"Vinod Khosla's latest"
Silicon Beat, June 26, 2006, by Matt Marshall
"Small Round, Big Investors For Microsoft & Java Database Co."
Dow Jones VentureWire, June 26, 2006, by Jonathan Shieber (login required)
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With best regards
The db4objects team.
www.db4o.com
newsletter@db4o.com
Phone +1 (650) 577-2340
1900 S Norfolk Street, Suite 350
San Mateo, CA 94403 (USA)