[saghm]

> The number of database calls will scale with the volume of data retrieved, but the volume is data retrieved should always be small.

Isn't that the point? Repeated network calls will cause latency even if the data is minimal; the total amount of data returned will always be the same, so the "N" extra network calls are pure overhead. For applications where the amount of data is usually small, network calls will likely be the bottleneck.

[dventimi]

Again, the number of network calls will scale with the total data payload of the overall request, but the requested total data payload should never be large. It's effectively capped. Therefore, the number of network calls is effectively capped. The N+1 SQL call multiplying factor may be 2, or 10, but it shouldn't be 100 or 1000. That's what I mean when I say I think the problem is overblown. It's not that it isn't a problem--for some people--but that it's not a problem that can grow without bounds.

Put another way, while the N+1 problem scales the number of SQL calls exponentially, it also scales the data payload the same way. Large payloads shouldn't occur and won't occur if we take steps to ensure that they don't. If we do, then we're also pretty much guaranteeing large batches of SQL statements will likewise be limited.