In the middle of the night, for some odd reason, this came to me. I wanted to post it here before I forgot, though it may be a bit outdated.
Years ago I remember talking to many people about the DataPage/RT database. When people reported some odd issues, we would often say that maybe the database was corrupted. Or, in general, if we wanted to try to improve efficiency, we would also point to the database. We would say it was fragmented. We would recommend that they do a full ASCII Export, create a new database, and then do an ASCII Import.
Think of it this way. You go fishing all season long, casting over and over again. Sometimes you reel it in slow, other times fast. Sometimes they are long casts, other times just into the rocks at your feet. Sometimes the line gets snagged, so you reel it in part way, tug it a few times till its free, and then reel in the rest. Sometimes the reel gives you trouble as you've cast, so you take it apart and work on it while the line sits out there. After all this, all the line is inside the reel, but you know its a mess. Some sections are loose, at different places along the spool. One way to solve this is to draw out all the line right to the end, and then while applying a little tension, you reel it all back in. This packs the line tight and orderly, and eliminates the problems you were having. This is analogous to the ASCII Dump/Load procedure for the old DataPage/RT.
I just had to share that, thanks for reading.
