Re: Relational Databases and Their Guts
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 10:43:57 -0400
Message-ID: <7QkIa.178$uI4.25159736_at_mantis.golden.net>
"Anith Sen" <anith_at_bizdatasolutions.com> wrote in message
news:G8jIa.13064$3o3.957392_at_bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Paul,
>
> >>
> > Be warned though, there is a difference between RDBMS and Relational
> Databases.
>
> What on earth do you mean by that?
> <<
>
> I think Todd's response was specific to the commercially available RDBMSs
> ( most likely the terminology mixup ), however, there is a difference
> between RDBMS & relational databases.
Frankly, I don't think Todd really understood what he was saying. For instance, he did not say there is a difference between relational dbmses and relational databases. As absurd as it sounds, it appears he might think "rdbms" means something other than "relational database management system."
> One can start with the difference between a database and a database
> management system. A database is a collection of axioms; in other words it
> is a set of known or true (believed to be true) facts that are properly
> represented for machine processing. A database management system (DBMS) is
a
> comprehensive computer system which manages databases using its hardware
and
> software resources.
>
> I am sure you know all this; a relational DBMS (RDBMS), by definition, is
a
> DBMS that represents all persistent data in a database as explicit values
in
> relations and relations only. And obviously, such a database is termed as
a
> relational database.
If Todd really wanted to make that distinction, he could have simply said there is a difference between a dbms and a database, which is pretty obvious when one thinks about it. One is a system that manages the other. The logical data model is an entirely orthogonal issue. Received on Thu Jun 19 2003 - 16:43:57 CEST