You forgot to include "Autospanning". :pIf that feature was crucial, then I wouldn't move "today" to a platform that doesn't offer it. Would I? ;-) Except possibly as a hypothetical exercise similar to those I've told you I've conducted since 2002. ;-)
FWIW, Craig B posted a link to a very recent article from Anders that seemed to suggest that in-memory datasets will soon be a feasible approach, which does tend to imply some sort of disk-memory spanning.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
