Re: Extending my question. Was: The relational model and relational algebra - why did SQL become the industry standard?

Bob,

thanks for your clarifications and I agree with everything you say, esp. regarding Hoares article. It has amazing insight and it is superbly written.

And thanks for "defending" my analogy GOTO's<--->Duplicates.

One (minor) point though: I believe that NULLs and duplicates did not result from a mad rush to get something into the SQL-standard, but were very deliberate and conscious design decisions made in the mid 70's.

Personally the "set" issue seems to me so clear that I have a hard time figuring out how respected DB-scientists can come to other conclusions. My theory is that (DB-) scientists don't really understand application development of just plain old "stupid" commercial systems, that, after all are what databases are mainly (=99%) used for. And everything that can be done to automate that environment is worth it's weight in gold. The absence of this understanding somehow distorts their view and prevents them from seeing the obvious.

regards,
Lauri Pietarinen Received on Thu Mar 13 2003 - 23:42:55 CET