"Ann W. Harrison" wrote:

> I think ROWNUM is somewhat like an old QLI thing called 'running count';
> to produce a numbered list, you'd say something like
>
> QLI> print running count | '. ' | rdb$relation_name of
> CON> first 5 rdb$relations sorted by descending rdb$relation_id
> 1. BLAH
> 2. BLITX
> 3. AWH2
> 4. AWH1
> 5. FOO
>
> QLI> print running count | '. ' | rdb$relation_name of
> CON> first 5 rdb$relations sorted by ascending rdb$relation_name
> 1. AWH1
> 2. AWH2
> 3. BLAH
> 4. BLITX
> 5. FOO
>
> there's no fixed relationship between a value of running count and a
> value of rdb$relation_name. Although first is a blr construct, running
> count was implemented in QLI, not the engine. There is a blr value
> called blr_run_count ... but no code, so no joy there

I see, so actually what they are looking for is a server-side tool to
step in and process the query...

>
> The problem is that users often ask for a huge stack of data, look at
> the first 10 items, pick one, and go off happy, leaving the data structure
> in memory full of unwanted stuff. Since there's no real way to know that
> the user has disappeared in a Web app, there's no good algorithm for
> releasing the data.

Aha! THAT IS A PROBLEM!

> Ah. You probably wouldn't. But if you were building a general purpose
> sort of web app that got relatively unsophisticated organizations on
> the internet (i.e. a pizza shop take-out app) you'd find that your average
> unsophisticated organization doesn't know a server from salami and wants
> to have someone else tend his computer.

Gotcha! I am in the process of moving much of our customer interaction
to a web based / interbase driven applciation, and am glad to see that
these issues do not affect me. I am reasonably db & language savvy, but
sometimes thes web issues confound my old brain.

thanks,

ed