Re: Why doesn't this work?

Now the arrogance really comes out.

I KNOW the theory of relational databases. I was preaching this line (of BS) over a decade ago. The thing is that I finally found out that I was WRONG. I KNOW what is 'relationaly pure' - and I have discovered that it is just a sky-castle. Now, instead of telling MY customers that they shouldn't want to do what they want to do, I try to find solutions.

Really, what I am trying to say here is that the arrogance (I used to have it just as you all do) is a DEFENSIVE mechanism. When someone unwittingly points out a flaw, by asking how to do something (something that the software doesn't directly support, the way the customer wants it supported) then the arrogant response kicks in. This is because it is next to impossible to admit a shortcoming. Yet, the software company that admits a shortcoming (by improving their software) will be the software company that will keep its customers, and acquire the customers of other software companies.

See, you assumed that since I don't agree with you, that I don't know what I am talking about. Yet I do know what I am talking about. I was even involved in the specification of distributed databases long before Oracle had the two-phase commit. (As part of a government funded project that Boeing [my employer at the time] had won from the Wright-Patterson air force base materials lab.)

Peter Schneider wrote:

> I can't see any other flaw than your failing to RTFM.

I have read it. I just disagree with it. I do understand it. This is presumptuous.

> You might want to read a good book on theory of relational databases before
> suggesting that a fix is needed where it clearly is not. To put it simply,
> tables and views are implementations of relations. Relations are sets of
> tuples. Sets are NOT ordered.

I completely understand sets, and tuples, and relations, etc. I probably understood them in great depth long before you ever heard of them. What you are doing is telling me what I (and others) should want. Yet the most profitable thing to do is to provide what the customers wants, not tell him that (since your software chooses [and it is a choice] not do so what the customer wants) that the customer should not want it.

All this started under another thread. Under that other thread, I was the only one to provide a solution.

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You can email me by removing the _NO_SPAM_ in the email address. Make sure you remove all three underscores. Received on Sun Dec 13 1998 - 19:13:40 CST