Re: VIEWS compared to Nodes as Windows into data

"Laconic2" <laconic2_at_comcast.net> wrote in message news:M5Odnc6QiurwPxLdRVn-jw_at_comcast.com...
> 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'm liking the product better now! They apparently recognized the join for what it was as well. ;-)

> 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.

That puts a little more perspective on it -- I only knew it as a PC product and I don't know what database (on the PC) was behind it, but I thought of it as being a Dbase variation.
--dawn Received on Wed Apr 28 2004 - 15:31:06 CEST