[thelist] Architecture for arbitrary data management

[r937]

> Basically, I'm trying to design a system which can cope with storing
> a fairly arbitrary set of key:value pairs, but which can quickly
> retrieve subsets of them based on complex queries as in any RDBMS.

be very careful, this is a slippery slope and you will end up frustrated and
in tears, because retrieval is very complicated and anything but quick

see:

Dave's guide to the EAV
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/davidm/articles/12117.aspx

OTLT and EAV: the two big design mistakes all beginners make
http://tonyandrews.blogspot.com/2004/10/otlt-and-eav-two-big-design-mistakes.html

One True Lookup Table (by Joe Celko)
http://www.dbazine.com/ofinterest/oi-articles/celko22

Lookup Table Madness
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/dpeterson/lookuptablemadness.asp

Do not use Generic Data Models
http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:10678084117056

;o)