Re: The Practical Benefits of the Relational Model

Bernard Peek <bap_at_shrdlu.com> wrote in message news:<w2ItWjKKPFk9EwZz_at_diamond9.demon.co.uk>...

> >At this stage, my question is, "what makes sense, going forward?" Should a
> >new language be developed, that takes on a different from SQL's mission,
> >but one that overlaps SQL's mission? It sounds, from the discussion of "D"
> >and its family of languages, as though the answer is "yes", at least for
> >some of the important authors. If a new language is developed, is that
> >going to increase or decrease the total amount of confusion generated by the
> >present plethora of languages? Does anybody care?
>
> If there is a new language it may developed for marketing rather than
> technical reasons. Microsoft would have a lot to gain if the next
> revision of C# included direct support for database manipulation. They
> could move a substantial chunk of the database market away from
> relational suppliers if they incorporated object-based storage in their
> next database and simultaneously in their programming languages.

-There aren't any "relational suppliers!" (but I will assume you mean SQL)
-Microsoft is ONE of those [SQL] suppliers, so why would they want to move people off of them?
-What exactly is "object-based storage"?!

I think you are missing the point. Let's recap: There are distinct advantages to using the relational approach to data management. For an implementation of the relational model, a single language is desirable for both the functional and imperative description of the application. So the discussion concerns languages with intrinsic relational support, not some object/relational mishmash, Embedded SQL or other such nonsense.

You assert that "Microsoft would have a lot to gain [by adding] direct support for database manipulation [to C#]." It isn't clear whether you are talking about relational support, but by your following sentence, I assume you are instead referring to making C#'s classes part of the SQL Server DBMS. Look at Oracle. They have done something similar to what Microsoft appears to be headed towards with Yukon, except using Java. Certainly nothing I have seen from Microsoft indicates that they have suddenly seen the relational light.

Your message betrays a need to research the relational model. ;-) I would suggest An Introduction to Database Systems by C. J. Date.

--
Nathan Allan