[squeak-dev] [ANN] Magma release 41

> I am pleased to announce release 41 of the "Magma" object-oriented
> database management system has been posted to SqueakMap.  Release 41
> brings significant improvements in performance, scalability and
> robustness, particularly on slow networks, as well as improved
> transparency and operation.
>
> Improved Performance and Scalability
>
> At the core of the better performance and scalability are
> architectural improvements to the networking module, "Ma Client
> Server", which now maintains up to 50 simultaneous socket connections
> instead of just one, and now also compresses request/response
> ByteArray's when appropriate.  The compression, alone, showed more
> than 100% performance improvement on ADSL-speed network connections.
> Thanks to ofset.org for funding this development.
>
> Improved Operational Monitoring
>
> An all-new performance and system-health monitoring package called
> "Ma Statistics" was developed and integrated into all layers of the
> Magma architecture.  Performance statistics for the last half-hour
> (hour, day, week, your choice) are captured in five-minute (also
> adjustable) intervals.  Is the server taxed or loafing?  What was the
> average response time for clients?  What was the longest response-time
> for any single request for any client?  What was the average size of
> each response?  These and dozens of other statistics are now captured
> while the server runs, with no performance penalty.
>
> Improved Distribution
>
> A MagmaForwardingProxy is a "bookmark" to an object in another
> repository, further improving performance, scale, distribution and
> database administration.  These have been present for some time, but
> have been heavily tested and improved in this release.
>
> Improved Transparency
>
> Transactions may now be as long as desired.  In fact, transactions
> may even span image saves! You may start an image, connect to a Magma
> repository, begin a transaction, make some changes, save and exit the
> image (not yet having committed), reboot the image later (objects in
> the image are brought up to date with changes by other sessions),
> continue any further changes, and finally commit successfully.
>
> Improved Operation
>
> With remote administration, release 41 better supports
> headless-operation mode.  The server now also keeps track of its
> memory consumption relative to capacity and will take action to reduce
> memory utilization, as necessary, before it becomes a problem
> (although Magma servers have always operated with a relatively low and
> fixed memory footprint, albeit dependent on number of clients and
> activity).
>