I still prefer the method where you can cast the blob into an array of
(byte|smallint|integer|int64|char|widchar|etc) and access the blob element by
element.
You can manipulate any type of blob within the engine at that point or even
write a type of blob filter within a stored procedure.
If you do this with strings as well, you could write in SP code any string
function you want.
This allows the developer to create whatever functions they want, while not
burdoning the engine with alot of new and untested functions.
This also allows people to write platform independant databases without worrying
about porting/compiling udf/filter libraries.

Those who want the extra speed could use UDF's, others who want portability, can
use SP code.

SP code would become the programming standard for Interbase.

just my 2c worth.

Dalton


Jim Starkey wrote:

> At 09:52 AM 5/7/00 +1000, Helen Borrie wrote:
> >
> >That still doesn't solve the problem of storing text blobs (text files such
> >as HTML and XML, and rtf) if they must be handled as strings. How would
> >one surmount the problem of reserved characters? It could blow away the
> >huge market of customers who want to use InterBase (as I do) as a really
> >fast way to store static, formatted plain text.
> >
>
> Really, there isn't a problem here. You can store whatever you
> want however you want. As long as you don't ask the engine to
> fetch your blob in a partiticular format, the engine won't do
> you any "favors". If you ask for text, however, the engine will
> try to find a filter to do the transactions. RTF is an excellent
> example. Give it a subtype and define a filter between that
> subtype and text. String operations will run the blob through
> the filter before applying the function (I didn't say it was
> free) and everything works. Define a blob filter between text
> and RTF, and the assignment code could (doesn't now) would run
> a literal through the filter to get RTF. Nothing get brokens.
> The beast just works in an intuitive manner.
>
> The motivation for blob filters was exactly that -- translating
> between various markup systems and text and transmogrifying
> image formats. The feature hasn't gotten a lot of press, but
> it solves a zillion problems. Just don't let Mr. Karwin put
> their descriptions in a system wide configuration file, please.
>
> Jim Starkey
>
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