Re: Codd provided appropriate mathematics ... (was Re: Relational and MV (response to "foundations of relational theory"))

"Marshall Spight" <mspight_at_dnai.com> wrote in message news:p5V_b.117800$jk2.509873_at_attbi_s53...
> "mountain man" <hobbit_at_southern_seaweed.com.op> wrote in message
news:BPf_b.72074$Wa.56878_at_news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> >
> > > While there
> > > is a mathematical model involved, it is just one of many ways to model
> > data
> > > and there is no mathematical proof that it is "right" and that any
other
> > is
> > > wrong. There is also, to my knowledge, no emperical data to suggest
that
> > it
> > > is "right" from the perspective of yielding overall better, faster,
more
> > > reliable, etc software applications.
> >
> >
> > I doubt whether one could in fact benchmark the relational *model*,
> > but rather only an implementation instance of the model. Thus I'd not
> > expect there to ever be any empiricism in this area.
>
> I think Dawn is referring (in the second part) to the possibility of
> testing whether software development is more cost-effective using
> one data model vs. another. This sort of thing is quite difficult, but
> it is certainly possible. I have, for example, read some interesting
> papers comparing programmer productivity in different programming
> languages.

How do the results of these papers stack up the programming languages in terms of productivity?

> As to the first part, I would assert that right and wrong are not
> qualities of a model. Rather, models are said to be more or less
> useful. I think Dawn has a valid point in critiquing the RDBMS
> world's tendency towards saying that the RDM is the only
> mathematically sound model.

When you look under the bonnet of the RDBMS software available today there are impressive features not previously available to 1980 DBMS architecture.

There is always a second issue, namely, that irrespective of the (R) in (R)DBMS, the actual implementation is always one step removed from the data model used.

A good DBA team implementing a non R-DBMS can achieve a better result than an inexperienced DBA team implementing a supposedly "superior" RDBMS. It is this issue I refered to above.

Pete Brown
Falls Creek
Oz Received on Wed Feb 25 2004 - 09:36:37 CET