Re: Do Data Models Need to built on a Mathematical Concept?

"Paul Vernon" <paul.vernon_at_ukk.ibmm.comm> wrote in message news:b8jcp9$3u0g$1_at_gazette.almaden.ibm.com...
> >
> > transactions
>
> Dead wrong. Transactions are bad, real bad. In short they are not compatible
> with the 'arrow of time'. They let you freeze time and that is not a good
> model of reality. Start a new thread if you want to discuss the details, I've
> a draft paper on the subject and a could do with some intelligent challenges
> to sharpen up my argument.

Wow. That's a dramatic statement. I'd be interested to have that followup. I'll start that thread. "Transactions: good or bad?"

> > declarative integrity constraints
>
> Yep, that is a big one, but again for me it is subsumed by application
> independence. To use the terminology, unless all your business rules are
> declared and enforced by the database, then each application will have to
> reimplement your rules and be vetted before being given database access. The
> goal of *strong application independence* is to allow any 'application'
> whatsoever to access and update your database, and still gureantee maintian a
> correct and working system even in a 'hostile' environment like the net.

Yes, this is huge.

>
> } Lately, I've spent some time working with Joe Armstrong's UBF
> } (http://www.sics.se/~joe/ubf/site/home.html).

We have something that sounds almost exactly like this at work. Everyone is so proud of it. I humor them.

> > I am very fond of saying, to whoever will listen, that Tim Berners-Lee set
> > computing back by decades.
>
> I agree with you below, but man, without TimBL there would be no WWW. Even I
> find it difficult to see how the relational model could have done a better job
> at spreading the networked world than HTML and web browsers.

Imagine a binary, relational version of XML built on the relational model. Imagine a decent user interface that included rich text with hyperlinks. Imagine a protocol for exchanging same that didn't suck. There you are: just a small matter of programming. :-)

Marshall Received on Tue Apr 29 2003 - 07:48:27 CEST