Oooooh!

Having looked at Maldwyn's excellent diagram, I now
"get it".

Yes: I think it looks right. That I can deal with.

I especially like the idea of abstracting over the
prexisting customer DB, but feel that in far too
many cases, leaving it to the LIR to impliment that
will be far too hard.

What I have discovered is that it was easier for
Level 3 to clean up the RIPE registry and import
that with scripts than to try and convert the old
QIP Oracle databse.

(I am still finishing off the scripts; there are
several issues. When finished, I shall report back
experiences to this list).

Therefore, I think that including a set of scripts
with version 1.0, that, _if necessary_ can create a
ready to go database in one of the free RDBMS's out
of the RIPE Whois database is a good idea.

That way, WRT migrating the old data; those who can,
will and thosew who would have dificulty can fall
back on this system, which is still easier that
doing all the work themselves.

Just my $0.02 (-:

ATB,

Guy


-- 
... it is easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the
sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all.  In other
words... their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their
superficial design flaws.
        -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, on the products
           of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

  o guy at vegoda.org o www.thenakedfrenchman.com o +44 7958469532 o