The Gem Stone database is different enough from either Smalltalk or relational databases to require a different approach to projects using it.
How? Please give us a hint. --Steve Freeman
Here are some Gemstone projects. Please add yours:
db size:
500MB
server:
512MB, 133MHz Pentium x 2
interactive users:
20
Chrysler Payroll (Essentially a batch app)
db size:
2.5 - 4 GB
server:
Sun Enterprise 2000 4GB RAM
interactive users:
5
Celestica - Data Acquisition and Control System ( DACS )
db size:
?
server:
IBM RS6000/AIX
interactive users:
Users aren't client Smalltalk, they are
plant floor devices that come into Gems through sockets.
Canada Life - Producer Account, Insurance Agent Compensation Mgt
db size:
?
server:
IBM RS6000/AIX
interactive users:
?
batch cycle:
daily cycle to process new insurance contracts and scheduled events.
Project:
VEPS - Vehicle Economic Profit System (AKA Vcaps Project)
db size:
21 GB now, 1 GB after phase 2 is released
server:
Sun Solaris
interactive users:
20
Project:
CMIMS - Configuration of Vehicle Style Options
db size:
?
server:
Sun Solaris
interactive users:
?
Project:
FEMS - "Flexible Enabling Manufacturing System"
db size:
500 MB?
server:
HP UX
interactive users:
?
Nortel
Product:
Service Builder
db size:
1-2 GB?
server:
HP UX
interactive users:
( combination of "real time" and interactive )
Product:
Concorde ATM Switch Management
db size:
500 MB - 1 GB?
server:
HP UX
interactive users:
?
Bell Sygma: Correlation Engine
db size:
500 MB - 1 GB?
server:
HP UX
interactive users:
Not interactive. Used for correlating events emanating from telco network.
db size:
50M - 1.5G (so far)
server:
Intel NT 4.0
interactive users:
interactive and real-time
Cross Keys Systems Corporation
Product:
Open Knowledge Element Management Framework
db size:
100 to 500MB
server:
Solaris
interactive users:
10
We are using Gem Stone on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation project. I would be interested in talking to other folks who are using it for traditional Information Services applications. -- Kent Beck
We are using Gem Stone in the Genome Topographer project. It's not really "traditional" but it is interesting. --Kyle Brown
We're exploring Gem Stone for use in a distributed data collection and review system. -- Dave Smith (7/27/96)
We are using Gem Stone/J for an interactive workflow application, and possibly several others. -- Russell Gold
We are using Gem Stone in three projects in Argentina. Two of them are used by an official organism devoted to the control of insurance companies; the third is a business information system used by a company in the alimentary market. We would like to share experiences with other Gem Stone/S developers. Also, we think that a Gem Stone mailing list would be useful and interesting to developers and system administrators. -- Leandro Caniglia (22/02/1998)
We're using Gem Stone to build an intelligence gathering system for Customs & Excise Canada (spy stuff). We've got a somewhat limited (read: bad) deployment environment -- what amounts to a 2400 baud WAN, which has driven us to some interesting non-traditional implementation strategies. We're also storing source code in Envy using a home-grown interface (which I'm happy to share). Despite all of these hits, it's great fun: Learning about being a spy is more fun than learning about banking or insurance claims. --Anthony Lander (23/02/1998)
We were (up to March '98) using Gemstone/S as part of a system for generating insurance products. We had invented a language for this and Gemstone was used to store, version and browse (for re-use) the parse-trees that were generated by fragments of the language. Our experience of Gemstone was pretty much that it was a great idea and definitely the way to go forward from the relational world in theory but probably still too immature in practice!
We also had to develop a framework to manage the server code in Envy (really this was an extension to the Gemstone Envy Toolkit) - what's the point of having Smalltalk on the server if you can't use the same tools and practices that encouraged you to choose it for the client? We did find that once we had all this under control, moving code execution to the server to improve performance became a (nearly) non-technical administrative process. Theory vindicated or try doing this with stored procedures!
-- Ted Wrinch (27/11/98)
Mutual Travel uses Gem Stone/S as our enterprise-wide object repository. This repository serves to several internal intranet information systems. In addition, it holds the information clients enter on our public website. We find it to work very well with Visual Works/Visual Wave server-based applications. The first release of our software was almost 2 years ago. We have been expanding the application suite regularly. --Joseph Bacanskas (12/08/1998)
We use Gemstone/J (Gem Stone Java) as the mid-tier (EJB -- Enterprise Java Beans) and application database (cache) for a large supply chain management and sales forecasting system. -- Frank Sauer (10/20/1999)
Ford uses Gem Stone/S on the Vcaps Project.
See original on c2.com 