PERL GTM module version 1.00
============================

This module allows a PERL programmer to access the GT.M globals database.
GT.M is a fast and flexible hierarchical database system.

It is assumed that the user has already installed GT.M, set up a database
and has the appropriate environment variables defined to allow GT.M to run.

A hierarchical database (also called an object database) allows data to be
stored at different levels of depth.  It behaves differently than either
of the two common database types; "Relational" and "Flat File".  The most
widely used hierarchical database is the registry in Microsoft Windows.

Instead of a simple key, each database node name is defined as a PERL 
list.  One example could be 
  ["Clients","Auto Dealerships","ACME Auto","Phone Number"]

If you're thinking of objects and object properties, this would be
analagous to:
  clients.auto_dealerships.acme_auto.phone_num

Data can be stored at any levels, and any level can also have sub-levels (also
called children, sub-nodes or child nodes).  Hierarchical databases can be 
treated as a collection of flat files, or a relational database, or a post-
relational or object-relational database with minimal effort.

Your mileage may vary, but hierarchical databases can outperform relational
databases in many cases, especially for certain types of queries.

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

  Now you need to copy 'extapi.m' somewhere that GT.M will find it, and
  move the file 'calltab.ci' to /usr/local/gtm/xc/calltab.ci

  If you'd prefer a different location for the calltab.ci file, you can
  change the location in GTM.h and recompile, or specify a new location
  in the environment variable 'GTMCI' when using the database.  The
  environment variable always takes precedence over the hard-coded location.

DEPENDENCIES

  This module does not requires any other modules.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2005 -- Regents of the University of California

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself. 

