Re: VIEWS compared to Nodes as Windows into data

Datatrieve wasn't a database system at all. It relied on some other engine to actually store and retrieve data: RMS, VAX DBMS, VAX Rdb, etc. etc.

But the DML for datatrieve gave me a neat transition between machine oriented process centered thinking and business oriented data centered thinking.

It also taught me how to use the relational join. (Which, by the way, it called a CROSS).
I was lucky enough to have a mentor in the Database arena, an instructor by the name of Bob Ellis, who shared with me some of the early writings on relational stuff. There was an article on using 1NF, 2NF, and 3NF to good advantage, even if you are working with indexed files. The ideas in the article allowed me to design really good files for use with Datatrieve.

The carryover to VAX Rdb was easy. In fact, RDB versions 1 and 2 used a DML language that some people called "Datatrieve done right". So when Rdb hit the street, I was ready for it. And it saved me a lot of time that I would have wasted learning DEC-10 DBMS or VAX DBMS. Those products were right at the peak of their careers. Received on Wed Apr 28 2004 - 14:25:09 CEST