Re: Should an application ever be allowed to change a schema?

Anthony W. Youngman wrote:

> mAsterdam writes

>> Karen Sundquist wrote:
>>
>>> Imagine a database that is only accessed by a server application.
>>
>> ...This effectively reduces the meaning of the word 'database' to
>> 'deluxe filesystem'. No problem, many use the word in that sense.

Ah, the sequel to the OS that has a
web-browser and a media-player
as essential, impossible-to-remove parts.

> What about Native Pick? Or OS/400?

They both use technology that originated from databases at an unusal level.
I haven't ever worked on AS/400, but what I hear from people who do is that they like it very much for database applications. Same goes for Pick.

> In some cases, the "deluxe file system" IS what you would call a
> database, I suspect. In others (Longhorn?) I suspect the use of a
> database is a gross abuse of the concept of a filesystem :-)

:-)

> Shades of grey.

Some demarcation lines do get blurred.

"The filesystem is the database"
"The network is the computer"
"The media is the message"
"L’État, c’est moi"