a reader's comment regarding database architecture

                 "Although you are certainly correct about desktop machines being
                  powerful, and they certainly have plenty of processing power to run just
                  about any application, for transaction processing based applications that is
                  not the issue. The issue is transaction processing based business
                  applications are data intensive, not (inherently) display intensive. A
                  fundamental reality of system design is that the display must be on the
                  desktop so the user can see it, and common data must be centrally located
                  so that everyone can get at it. The variable is: where do you put the
                  application? Clearly, for word processing, CAD, etc., you want the
                  application near the display. But for transaction processing, you want the
                  application near the data...

                  In the client-server paradigm, a client is the requestor of services and
                  a server is the provider thereof. Surely the application is the client, not the
                  keyboard and display. The display is just another server, just like a print
                  server. Similarly, the keyboard and mouse are services that provide input
                  for the client application. X-windows got it right - the display (and
                  keyboard and mouse) are handled by an X-server. As a system designer, I
                  want to be able to put the application where it makes sense - neither
                  forced to put it in the same box as the display OR in the same box as the database
                  (as with traditional mainframe/mini architectures). Distributed DBMS systems
                  now allow the database to be separated from the application and run on as many
                  servers as needed (with perhaps some practical limitations). The Citrix ICA scheme,
                  allows the display, keyboard and mouse (the intrinsically desktop items) to be
                  separated from the application. THAT allows for good system design.
                  Java is even better. It lets the application that make sense to run on the
                  desktop do so, and the rest run on the server (really, the client!). "

                  Jim Herber
                  Director, System Products
                  Physician Computer Network