Jamie sez SDS still supports EAVs
it is absolutely not the case that it won’t be possible to host EAV models on the future incarnation of SDS. That version of SDS will be built upon SQL Server 2008 which contains the new sparse column feature – a perfect storage mechanism for EAV models.
very good point. EAVs are not about storage, they're about a different interface w/ the data. relational models emphasize homogenous records, foreign keys, cross-table joins, secondary indexes, etc. EAVs emphasize heterogenous records, single-key indexes, multi-homed data stores, etc.
SDS's EAV interface was hosted in SQL Server. the new SDS will be hosted in SQL server, too. so there no reason that we can't use an EAV interface to access our data.
well, just one, really. we'll have to write the EAV interface ourselves.
and that's kinda a bummer.