Architecture of Btrieve - Database Terminology

Database Terminology

Pervasive initially used the term "navigational database" to describe Btrieve, but later changed this to "transactional database". The use of the term navigational database was unusual because a navigational database uses "pointers" and "paths" to navigate among data records, and these pointers are contained in the record itself; ISAM, which is the fundamental structure of Btrieve, uses a secondary index table to store these pointers to decrease search times. Thus, the two types of database are different, and may or may not explain why Pervasive started using different terminology for classifying their database.