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

From: Lauri Pietarinen <lauri.pietarinen_at_atbusiness.com>
Date: 16 Mar 2003 15:26:33 -0800
Message-ID: <e9d83568.0303161526.100ec3fc_at_posting.google.com>


71062.1056_at_compuserve.com (--CELKO--) wrote in message news:<c0d87ec0.0303141646.31440921_at_posting.google.com>...
> >> the point is still valid that it will never get removed once
> introduced. <<
>
> No. The removal of a language feature is called "deprecation" in the
> Standards game and it is a [pun] standard procedure.

That might be all right in theory, Joe, but in practice if something is introduced into a language it is near impossible to remove it later. There will always be somebody, somewhere that will complain that removing this feature will brake x programs or will require y mandays to adapt to.

It is a heavy task technically and management wise and it won't add to the bottom line so there is very little incentive to remove anything ever.

Think of the Oracle "Varchar2" -mess.

You don't gain popularity by removing redundant features (even though you should!)

So the only valid alternative is to be very conservative and cautions from the start, hence the "principle of cautious design" is very valid indeed.

> So far, SQL has removed ordinal position
> numbers for columns as one concrete example.

Does that mean that

SELECT P#, PNAME
  FROM P
ORDER BY 2 is now depricated?

If so, when do you think that will be reflected in products?

best regards,
Lauri Pietarinen Received on Mon Mar 17 2003 - 00:26:33 CET

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