Re: foundations of relational theory?

In article <JIwnb.38666$9E1.147949_at_attbi_s52>, Marshall Spight <mspight_at_dnai.com> writes
>"cmurthi" <xyzcmurthi_at_quest.with.a.w.net> wrote in message news:3F9E7BFE.7050400
>_at_quest.with.a.w.net...
>> Perhaps
>> this can evolve to a discussion of priorities and strategies in
>> application development instead of purely theoretical niceties.
>
>I'm interested in practicalities, but I'm also interested in
>theory. The big reason I read c.d.t. is to further my interest
>in theory. When I'm at work, I'm Mr. Practical. When I'm
>home, reading newsgroups, I put my theory hat on. So
>I actually have a *cultural* bias against discussing practicalities
>while here. (Plus, I already get a steady diet of that.)

Which is why I would like to prove (theory) that you cannot improve on the Pick/MV way of thinking (practical).

You saw my stats and reference to "1.05"? Given a request by the app, this is the number of times a MV database has to look (on average) to find the data the app requested.

The relational theory way of saying "we won't specify the implementation because we may find new ways of speeding it up" comes across as daft to the MV people who say "we can't make that figure less than one, and we're so close what's the point of trying to speed it up?"
>
>Of course, the weird thing about crossposting is that "here"
>and "there" are the same place. This post goes to both, but
>I'm only subscribed to one. To me and other cdters, this
>is home base; to the cdpers, same thing. This kind of
>breaks a basic human interaction mechanism, which is
>that you be extra-polite when you're in someone else's
>home. We're each in the others' living room.
>
>I'm not sure who first brough c.d.t. and c.d.p. together; it
>was perhaps not the best fit of cultures!
>
Yes - one bunch of people are practical engineers, the other bunch are ivory tower mathematicians. I just wonder which of them is brighter :-)
>
>Marshall
>

Cheers,
Wol

-- 
Anthony W. Youngman - wol at thewolery dot demon dot co dot uk
Witches are curious by definition and inquisitive by nature. She moved in. "Let 
me through. I'm a nosey person.", she said, employing both elbows.
Maskerade : (c) 1995 Terry Pratchett