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xom-interest - Re: [XOM-interest] indexOf O(1) patch?

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Subject: XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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  • From: Elliotte Harold <elharo AT metalab.unc.edu>
  • To: Wolfgang Hoschek <whoschek AT lbl.gov>
  • Cc: XOM-interest AT lists.ibiblio.org, Nils_Kilden-Pedersen AT Countrywide.Com
  • Subject: Re: [XOM-interest] indexOf O(1) patch?
  • Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 15:56:42 -0500

Wolfgang Hoschek wrote:

How can a main memory tree (and the binary codec is no exception) address documents growing faster than moore's law? Cause that's the technology drift happening at the "very large document" area. A very large document an app is processing today won't have the same size in 6 months. Can one trim XOM memory faster than that rate in a sustainable manner? Certainly not. Can one trim XOM memory to zero, which is what it would need to be to handle arbitrarily large documents? Certainly not.

You're repeating the binary fallacy. You're saying anything less than perfect isn't worth bothering with. Of course we can't trim memory usage to zero. But I do think every significant reduction in memory usage we make does expand the universe of documents XOM can handle.

It goes without saying that consuming exorbitant amounts of memory for no good reason is always a bad idea. So trim memory fat where it improves or doesn't hurt performance, and abstain from trimming where it would degrade performance.

As I've said before, I encounter far more developers having trouble with XML due to memory usage and document size than due to speed, and as you point out Moore's law does a better job of solving speed problems than size problems. Where a choice needs to be made between optimizing for size and optimizing for speed, I will optimize for size. If XOM can do both, great; but when forced to choose size is more important to more users.

--
Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo AT metalab.unc.edu
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
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