[Oz] Using Oz for large databases

[Bill Hunter]

Is it a good idea to use Oz to build systems that manage large amounts
of fairly passive data?  An example from retailing would be
transactional data on sales; each time the cash register rings there is
a record that someone (possibly known through a credit card number)
bought an item which has a variety of attributes including its price.
Over time this adds up to hundreds of megabytes or possibly many
gigabytes depending on the size of the store chain.

The example is not artificial.  I am seeking a better way to manage such
data than by storing it in yet another relational database.  Assuming
one is willing to invest significantly in hardware, for example opening
up the possibility of gigabytes of RAM and multiple processors, does
this class of problem become addressable with Oz/ Mozart?

Please be aware that this question is coming from someone new, not only
to Oz, but to functional languages in general.  (Apologies to the group
if I am mislabeling Oz with this sentence :)  In fact, I have to confess
that I am writing this note concurrent with digging through the Oz
documentation to see how file access or persistent data is handled at
all.

Thanks
Bill Hunter




-
Please send submissions to users at mozart-oz.org
and administriva mail to users-request at mozart-oz.org.
The Mozart Oz web site is at http://www.mozart-oz.org/.