Re: how to query the structure of a database

Paul,

I honestly believe you are onto something with your rant.

When I first got interested in databases, about 20 years ago, they turned out to be about data sharing,
as much as they were about data storage. While computer networks provided the circulatory system
for data sharing, they tended, at some level to be conveyers of data without much regard for its meaning.
In other words, "we deliver the packets. We aren't responsible for the contents".

Databases, for some reason, seemed to be where computer systems that shared data among users, seemed to get into the ontology of it all. This is where the great uphill struggle against "Tower of Babel syndrome" got waged.

And this is where the systems of the future, be they relational or object oriented, or some thing else, or even a synthesis, will find the uphill battle to make sense out of a bunch of ones and zeroes.

As long as the main focus stays on storage and retrieval for a single user, it will be merely a technical quest. This quest, while full of fun and profit, isn't as ultimately, as meaningful as the quest to find meaning.

Gawd, this sounds philosophical! Or, more likely, pseudo philosophical. Oh well, I feel better now.

--
Regards,
    David Cressey
    www.dcressey.com