[z3-five] five.intid: cool!

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

Jim Fulton wrote:
> whit wrote:
> ...
>> I haven't tried it yet ;) but yeah that's the general idea(should also 
>> allow the z3 reference implementations to be adapted for zope2).   I'm 
>> using it  with rdflib, but I believe the idea is the same.
> 
> I'll note in passing that reference systems don't need intids.
> Integer ids are mainly an optimization for indexing structures
> because integer ids can be stored and compared more efficiently
> than key references.

Int ids can also be round-tripped to the browser much more easily. E.g. 
when I'm creating a UI for a reference system that lets me select the 
objects that I'm creating a reference for, it's a lot simpler to use int 
ids.

> This is a trade-off, since key references can be dereferenced more
> efficiently than integer ids.

What do you mean?

> Many reference systems can and should be implemented on key
> references directly.

Possibly, though at least for the browser stuff integers are more 
attractive due to their simplicity. And, of course, if you have a system 
that has lots of references and needs set operations, it may also make a 
difference to use integers and integer-flavoured BTrees.