The Slog

I wanted to familiarise myself even more with the kdb+ c API, so I wrote a small browser in c, using the win32 api. It’s a noddy piece of code, maybe a 100 lines long. The k stuff is maybe 10 lines - mainly formatting of types for output into the grid. It runs in virtual mode, i.e. it calls back and asks for the data when each cell becomes visible. It uses ~17MB ram to view 100k rows of a 15 column table. A screenshot of it can be found here

It runs from the command line as

browz localhost 5010 trade

i.e. specify the hostname port and table you want to view. It will only view flat, non partitioned tables at the moment. The error checking is fairly poor - I’ll beef that up in the coming weeks.

It should NOT be used with kdb+ 2.1

. It is currently in alpha phase, i.e. should not be used with production systems, and you download, install and run it at your own risk.

Download exe here
and
Download the required dll here

Make sure the c.dll is in the path before executing browz.exe

Mail me if you have any feedback.

I’ve decided to make Studio for kdb+ available as freeware. I’m not releasing the source code, and I may entertain commercial support agreements in the future.

The Kx Customer Workshops provide a great arena to observe and discuss how kdb+ is and can be applied. Long term established clients are present, alongside prospective clients who have or are about to perform a Proof of Concept, i.e. check that kdb+ suits their requirements.

Yesterday’s workshop in London was fairly typical for a Kx/FD event. It was a well organised venue - with people flying in from all parts of the globe to attend and present. I myself happened to be in London anyway, so it was no great hardship for me to fork out an 8 Pound taxi ride to attend. It was clear that the audience was a mix of experienced and novice users, and hopefully with the mix of presenters (Kx,FD, Deutsche Bank, myself, Millenium Partners) managed to engage all of them between us. Everyone appears to be doing leading edge stuff, and Steve Wirts was doing some truly creative graphics stuff in Q. Simon Garland gave a rather humourful presentation on kdb+ security, which as he observed is a necessary evil. It is reassuring for users to know that kdb+ servers can be locked down and protected. The usual mix of big banks were present, and I attended on behalf of JPMorgan. The cocktail party afterwards seemed to draw even more attendants (customary late arrivals), and it gave users a chance to exchange ideas/views and get to talk face to face with Arthur, Simon and Janet - a privilege indeed.

It was interesting to note that some APL gurus also attended. Adrian Smith, a well respected character in the APL world, was present. One of his latest pieces of work can be found at http://www.sharpplot.com. Stephen Taylor, who edits http://www.vector.org.uk, was also there elaborating on his ideas about how to improve the software development process. He seems to have the same level of enthusiam for simplifying the development process as Arthur has for simplifying programming languages!

Anyway, it was a great event and I look forward to the next one.