By a virtually unanimous vote, the 30-plus SIG members in Chicago approved the design that puts the data in the database’s root file. Conceived by developer Stan Sieler of Allegro Consultants, this methodology “extends the root file up to 1-2Mb max,” Sieler explained. “We have a relatively simple API that lets you say ‘I’m vendor or user so-and-so,’ then it’s a key approach: you say ‘here’s my key, now give me my information back.’ ” The Enchilada has been in play so long that the database SIG has now organized its enhancement requests around its potential existence. The facility could give HP e3000 database users a brand new way to store extra information about IMAGE/SQL — information that is invaluable to application programmers and development teams. SIG-IMAGE/SQL chairman Ken Sletten has said that HP could build the Enchilada and use it to deliver many IMAGE enhancements which it hasn’t yet committed resources toward.

Sieler has said the advantage to his design is “there are no new files, so existing database copy, purge and rename utilities will all automatically work. All the other proposals involve having additional files somewhere. We’ve had problems in the past where we’ve added new files, like .IDX files for the b-trees, and suddenly the backup utilities don’t know how to store those. It’s vitally important that an IMAGE database is one concept to all these utilities. It’s important to make it easy to move a database from system to system.”

With a design approved, the SIG now presents its design specification to the HP database labs over the next few months. HP had never committed to the Enchilada enhancement as a staffed project, but its reticence has been secondary to the SIG’s impasse over design. At an HP World database roundtable in Chicago, Sletten suggested “Maybe we need to get our act together on this.” Two days later, a two-hour SIG meeting resolved the conflict over design. “Some might say that [the 30-plus] attendees were a pretty small sample,” Sletten said. “But this has already been languishing for way too long: A decision needed to be made, and we at HP World collectively made one.” Sletten said the SIG would be in discussion with the HP database lab over the next month to determine a possible implementation schedule for the Enchilada. HP hasn’t committed to the project, which may be too large to fit into the new definition of a Software Improvement Ballot item. HP has said it can deliver low-to-medium effort enhancements in the SIB process. In the latest enhancement ballot, 11 items could be enabled by delivering the Enchilada, including high-effort items like the first date/time datatypes for the database and support for Binary Large Objects. The Enchilada could also be used to create tags to associate COBOL picture info with an IMAGE data item, or set up a tool memory area to allow logging of tool-specific IMAGE data on structural problems.