Tony As always you make some good points.
1/ It's not the term MultiValue I have a problem with - that we should continue to support since it already has a meaning and a presence, and one worth building on. For one thing, MVDBMS is a nice abbreviation! It's the terminology used within that, that is the problem: for example, I want to put some web pages out giving an introduction to the query language. What do I call it? If I use the word 'RetrieVe' that alienates every other variant: if I mention all of them, it just gets silly. Even writing purely for U2, the fact that there are two names - RetrieVe and UniQuery -from the same manufacturer for two variants that to all intents and purposes do the same thing, is confusing for anyone from outside. That's the level where we need some consensus. 2/ Naming IS important, because people search. And it has been one of the battles in getting people to understand the reach of the technolgy, that with the names being totally fragmented any search gives a disproportionately shrunken view of this data model. 3/ Should the U2UG be doing this type of work? - well, how many years have we waited for the vendors to produce introductory materials aimed at encouraging new users other than those migrating from within the existing multivalue pool, or quality samples that really catch the cutting edge of these products? Let me see - forever. So if they are not going to do it, there is a group of people here who can (though whether we will be decide on the outcome of our board meeting tonight when we will be discussing our focus for this year). 4/ Unfortunately the U2UG has to be seen to be focussed on the U2 product line and not on MultiValue in general - otherwise we simply won't get any support and buy-in from Rocket. Bottom line. 5/ But that doesn't mean we can't have materials that point out how the model works, and that point out the areas of advantage over other database models in more general terms. That's a balance we will need to strike, and carefully. You know my personal views.. Brian _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list U2-Users@listserver.u2ug.org http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
