(reply-to set to zodb-dev)
In the long term, this will allow is to *finally* support cross database references.
Your proposal describes an unfamiliar kind of reference. In unix filesystem terms, it mixes characteristics of hard links and symbolic links.
That's right, it's not like a file-system hard link or a soft link.
...
Right now I cant think of a use case for this new type of reference (either in a filesystem or zodb database). Can you give some examples?
Yes. I want to create a reference from one object to another in Python code. (It's much easier to do that in Zope 3, for various reasons I won't go into here.) At the Python level, I don't want to have to worry about whether the objects are in separate databases.
Now, the fact that the reference is weak is a definate disadvantage. I'd rather have a strong reference, but that makes the problem much harder to solve. There are applications where weak references are a step forward.
An alternative model is to require that the reference isn't direct but has weak references (as in Python weak reference) semantics). That is, rather than saying:
self.x = foo
requiring:
self.x = persistent.wref.ref(foo)
Anyway, you ask a reasonably question. Let's continue this discussion after I write a proposal for cross-database references.
Jim
-- Jim Fulton mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Python Powered! CTO (540) 361-1714 http://www.python.org Zope Corporation http://www.zope.com http://www.zope.org
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