Re: Dreaming About Redesigning SQL
Date: 8 Oct 2003 01:06:10 -0700
Message-ID: <57da7b56.0310080006.47b550a9_at_posting.google.com>
Lee Fesperman <firstsql_at_ix.netcom.com> wrote in message news:<3F833025.76A6_at_ix.netcom.com>...
> Jan Hidders wrote:
> >
> > Seun Osewa wrote:
> > > I would also like to know the classical arguments against the network
> > > model or other "pointer based" models. The only things I know are
> > > that:
> > >
> > > ** using pointers to positions in memory or disk can be messy when
> > > data has to be moved around. But then is seems there are several
> > > simple ways to solve this, e.g. what I can only call "logical
> > > pointers".
> >
> > Correct. There's absolutely no reason to believe that you cannot have
> > data independence with logical pointer or references. I would however
> > argue that allowing entities without representable keys is not a good idea.
>
> Incorrect. Even though you call them 'logical' pointers, they are still physical
> artifacts and have no place in a truly logical view of the database. Databases are about
> data, and pointers are not data (or meta-data).
Erm . .
What's 'physical' about this?
RELATION Dept ( Id Dept_Id KEY, Name String );
RELATION Emp ( Id Emp_Id KEY, Dept REF(Dept),
RETRIEVE E.Name, DEREF(E.Dept).Name FROM Emp E;
RETRIEVE E.Name FROM Emp E, Dept D
Name PersonName, Salary Money );
WHERE DEREF(E.Dept).Id = E.Id AND D.Name = 'shoe';
This schema assumes a strict two-value logic, so Emp.Dept cannot, under any circumstances what-so-ever, have anything in it except a 'logical reference' to exactly one Dept tuple. How is this achieved under the covers? Who cares! It's about the logical model.
KR
P "twit filtered since 2003!" b Received on Wed Oct 08 2003 - 10:06:10 CEST