Re: proplib and the jet age

[Marc Balmer <marc%msys.ch@localhost>]

Am 31.12.2012 um 21:16 schrieb David Holland 
<dholland-tech%netbsd.org@localhost>:

[...]

> The chief question, therefore, is what data model the new stuff should
> support. There are at least seven obvious candidates I can think of:
> 
> (a) What we have in proplib (arrays and string-keyed dictionaries)
> only, with the explicit understanding that only tree structures are
> supported and not graphs; that is, no dictionary or array can appear
> more than once.
> 
> (b) Same as (a) but extend dictionaries to be keyable with arbitrary
> atom types.
> 
> (c) A more general semistructured model, like (b) but that explicitly
> allows graph structure without being fully graph-oriented.
> 
> (d) RDF, or more likely a tasteful subset of RDF with data types
> instead of using URIs for everying. (http://www.w3.org/RDF/)
> 
> (e) Property graphs.
> (https://github.com/tinkerpop/blueprints/wiki/Property-Graph-Model)
> 
> (f) Property graphs where property values can be tuples rather than
> only atoms.
> 
> (g) Relations (tables of rows with named fields).

Let me add another option here:  Lua could be used just for that.  Lua has been 
designed as a data description language, a fact that is obvious when you look 
at it's fine syntax for defining tables and structuring data in general.   Its 
easy to generate and easy to process and has far less overhead that e.g. XML.

[...]