I wrote: "He wanted MS-SQL, not MySQL, but let's not go into that".
You're quite right. Thanks for that correction. If the database "isn't helping you with anything", then you're not using the real power of a database! A database isn't just a collection of data - it's an ORGANIZED collection of data. You can use that organization (which would always include indexing), to your massive advantage. But you also don't have to use that advantage. You can do it either way, AND I never said the problem couldn't be solved in a regular programming language. I'm sure it can be, absolutely! . It's a bit like computer chess. You can calculate your own moves in your program, from scratch, for each new board position during the game. OR, you can pre-compute tables which are organized according to each piece, (knight, queen, pawn, king, etc.), if it were placed on any of the 64 squares of the board. Which makes getting the list of pseudo-legal moves, a mere look-up through tables, and can save a lot of time, instead of creating your own pseudo-legal list of moves, from scratch. If you would like more info on that, go to www.talkchess.com, register (it's free), and chat with some of the several chess programmers you'll find there. These include the current, and several former computer chess world champs, so go there with your ears open. Robert Hyatt (professor at University of Alabama, co-author of Cray Blitz and author of Crafty), has little patience with those who don't want to listen, but like to argue. Other programmer's include those for programs like: Fruit, Fish (probably the strongest current program in the world), Zappa (current unlimited world champion), and many others. In computer chess you have to use a large amount of organized data for your program to play well. Things like large opening books, and absolutely huge end-game databases (we call them "table bases"), are all put to good use. No programmer HAS to use them - but ALL the strongest programs, DO USE THEM. The best analogy I can think of is a man walking along a road, with a bicycle. He ABSOLUTELY can get to his destination, this way. The bicycle just, kinda gets in his way. But he could get there a lot faster if he USED the bicycle's unique properties to help him move toward his destination. There may be other considerations that favor NOT using the database, if it's poorly designed for your type of query, so it takes too long to produce the answer, or just overloaded by too many users. That's a problem with that particular database implementation, but it doesn't mean a good system would have those flaws. Adak --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Algorithm Geeks" group. To post to this group, send email to algogeeks@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/algogeeks -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
