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Newsletter :: November 2007
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K U D O S    O F    T H E    M O N T H

"Software that makes data integration much easier is software that can conquer the world."
               -- Art Vandalay, October 05, 2007


A R T I C L E S

-- db4o FULLY TESTED IN MULTI-CORE ENVIRONMENT --

The entire db4o build, integration and test infrastructure has now been moved to multi-core machines. Our build process is now running on a quad-core server. What that means is that the current db4o continuous build and all future releases are tested for both single and multi-core environments.

Read more in Carl's blog here.


-- db4o 6.4.14 BRINGS CLIENT/SERVER CONNECTION OVERHAUL –-

db4o 6.4.14 is now available in the download center. It comes with 16 bug fixes including a Client/Server socket connection system overhaul you can learn more about here.

db4o 6.4 is now branched and earmarked to be the next production and consequently stable release candidate. From now on, the feature set will stay consistent and only bug fixes will be applied to the code. After an estimated 3 months of community scrutiny and internal tests 6.4 will take the place of 6.1 as the official stable release in Q1/08.

A community poll revealed that further support for .NET 1.1 (including Compact Framework) is no longer required. Future releases higher than 6.4 will no longer provide a .NET 1.1 release, the sources however will still be available so that users can build the release themselves.

You can take a look at the db4o 6.4.14 release notes here or other versions of db4o here.


-- A FRESH LOOK AT MONO --

Mono is an open source project that provides the tools to run .NET code on Linux and other operating systems. We have created a Mono Project page that describes in detail how to build a Mono distribution from the .NET release of db4o. We are working together with the Mono team to ensure the code builds correctly and hope to remove the last few remaining bugs shortly. This will be the preferred release methodology for Mono in the future.

If you have Mono binaries you would like to share with the community please feel free to use the project page as a sharing medium.


-- db4o OVER 500 TIMES FASTER THAN SQLITE --

Polepos.org has just released updated results of the popular open source benchmark test suite. When comparing true ACID databases the results show that db4o is unbeatable when dealing with complex data structures and shows competitive results for simple data structures.

As an example db4o writes over 500 times faster, reads 8 times faster, queries at about the same speed and deletes over 400 times faster than SQLite in the Barcelona circuit that tests the contenders' speed against complex data structures.

db4o and SQLite are designed to be self-contained, embeddable and zero-configuration. However, when it comes to rich client environments that have to deal with complex and often dynamic data db4o is the more professional option. Not having to deal with predefining the data schema or not having to map the class schema means that the application has flexibility built in as part of its DNA.

To see the full test report please visit the polepos.org web site. The polepos.org creators encourage you to improve the test by contributing Circuits, Teams, Cars or Drivers.


-- NATIVE QUERIES: MOVING TOWARDS A STANDARD --

The OMG’s Object Database Technology Working Group (ODBTWG) was formed in December 2005 to "re-ignite" object database standardization efforts and define a successor to ODMG3 that was defined in 2000. db4objects has allocated resources to actively participate in the group to help create a next-generation object database standard.

To set a direction for the standard the ODBTWG just released a white paper titled "Next Generation Object Database Standardization" that introduces equivalent native programming language bindings or what we call "native queries".

As a result of our active participation, the white paper concludes that native programming language bindings are the preferred way to define queries for object databases. The paper acknowledges multiple benefits that OO-developers enjoy when they have access to object databases such as the ability to seamlessly persist objects and strong type checking for queries.

You can read the paper here and you can comment and give feedback on the white paper here.


-- db4o MAKES DISTRIBUTION SIMPLE FOR MACRIX --

While developing a financial planning program, Macrix, a software company based near Dusseldorf, Germany, realized they needed a database that took the complexity out of the development process and was simple to distribute.

Read how db4o helped solve distribution, portability and development challenges for Macrix here.

Also newly added: Postbank success story.
Read how db4o enhances Postbank's mobile field force application in the newly published success story here.


-- NEW NETBEANS PLUG-IN PROJECT, LANGUAGE LEARNING APP --

db4o-netbeans plug in project started:
Gerd Kleevesat (author of the db4o Eclipse plug in) just started a new project to build a netbeans plugin for db4o. You can see some screenshots in the project space Wiki entry for the project which is available here (please bookmark this page and check it often for updates).

New project to help people learn foreign languages:
Gaikokugo (by Christopher Brind) is an Eclipse RCP application that uses db4o for it's underlying database in order to aid language students by forcing them to enter their class notes into an application and then receive automatically generated pop-tests.


L O O K I N G    I N T O    T H E    M I R R O R

Select press coverage about db4o since the last newsletter:

"db4objects leverages user base as hiring pool"
IT Manager's Journal, September 21, 2007, by Hailey Lynne McKeefry

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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)



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