Re: The Theoretical Foundations of the Relational Model
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 02:10:04 -0500
Message-ID: <ve2rgu80cstl3rvr4froeg4chs39f0pker_at_4ax.com>
On 14 Jun 2002 16:42:43 -0700, paul_geoffrey_brown_at_yahoo.com (Paul G.
Brown) wrote:
>In the midst of the current flare-up in the long-running 'objects vs
> relations' flame-war, I thought it might be useful to take a moment,
> step back, and explain to the object folk something of where the
> relational crowd are coming from. I'm going to try to do this without
> once mentioning the word 'database'. (Oops.)
I'm sorry I just stopped by briefly tonight so I will have to
thoroughly read the post some other time.
I do however have an observation I would like to share. Everytime I've met a DBA who claimed the superiority of the relational model because of it's strong mathematical foundation, I've asked them to recite Codds rules. Invariably they can't. So much for a strong mathematical foundation.
BTW if you show Codd's rules to a *real* mathematician. Say an algebraicist or topologist. They would say that they form a set of definitions, not a set of axioms. Received on Mon Jun 17 2002 - 09:10:04 CEST