RE: Modernization and multi-member files

Dave,

Please stop to consider this.... Security problem? Perhaps you are not aware of the OS400 object security model, but it rather nicely and consistently manages ANY access to the object and/or data, regardless of HOW it is accessed. Do you realize that SQL uses the same methods to access the database as an RPG read/chain/delete/etc? In this regard, one COULD claim that OS400 is in fact closer to Codd's ideals, since there is in fact only ONE channel for the user to access data. All access to the DB is through the OS, and always subject to the same controls.

So, you have created a table using DDL, and you secure it as needed. Now, tell me how you can circumvent security to that table by using native IO....... Please, give a concrete example for once, instead of simply insisting that it is so.....

I could agree for any other platform, where the OS itself just treats the data-store as a stream of bytes.... This is an inherent limitation of those other platforms, because they do not differentiate between object types. Everything is just a stream of bytes. Only OS400 was built from the ground up to support an object model, integrating database support at the very lowest layers of the OS. Not z, not p, not x..... All of these provide database support as an add-on product. Not native to the platform at all. Therefore, THOSE products are subject to the limitations of the underlying OS. Security involving multiple layers is hardly intuitive or failsafe. Those products are always much more difficult to manage, because you must manage them at both the product and the OS layers.

Please stop with the rhetoric for a moment, and lets have a reasonable discussion. There is surely no doubt that most database designs implemented on OS400 do not take advantage of the advanced database features supported by the platform, but that hardly indicates the inferiority of the product.

Eric DeLong

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Dave Odom
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 4:44 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Modernization and multi-member files


Joe, Joe, Joe,

It is a given in the rest of the relational world, especially the rest of the DB2s, that any access other than via SQL is a back door and considered a security problem. You might not want to admit it but it is true. As to my credibility on this forum... not concerned. Either others are willing to consider they might be wrong and and I might be right or they are not. Argiments like this usually come from religious zealots who's experience is limited mostly to the i5 and have little or no experience in the other DB2 worlds.

Dave