On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 05:17:21PM +0100, Alban Hertroys wrote: > Martijn van Oosterhout wrote: > >I think it's a wonderful idea. You could use a similar mechanism to > >implement: > > > >- Currencies (so you can't add dollars to pounds) > >- Timezone aware timestamps (so a time in Australia looks differet from > >a time in Europe) > > > >Probably much more. > > Indeed, you could even add a way to convert between different types if > they are in the same categories; for example convert between dollars and > euro's or between degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit (that's a > trickier one, the shell command 'units' returns wrong results there).
I think it would be fabulous if it could be implemented as a generic extension to the type system, because I'm sure there are even cooler uses than what we are thinking of here... > OTOH, it's probably not that a good idea to add all kinds of complicated > (read: "processor intensive") math to a database engine. We're talking here about a database with indexes to speed up intersection tests for arbitrary polygons, extensions to handle encryption, full text indexing and even builtin XML support. I think arguing excessive use of CPU cycles is a bit late :) I think the argument is that if it helps people do their work "correctly" then it's worth supporting. As long as it doesn't hamper anybody else. Have a nice day, -- Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> http://svana.org/kleptog/ > Patent. n. Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A patent is a > tool for doing 5% of the work and then sitting around waiting for someone > else to do the other 95% so you can sue them.
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