Re: Date is Incomplete - database application software and database theory

>> Why have another language? Doesn't that suggest use of the first
language is not implemented properly? <<

Nah! It means we like to write languages! :) And, as Dave McGovern said "A committee never met a feature it didn't like."

>> 1. We have database software. <<

Which means SQL these days; a declarative, set oriented language.

>> 2. We have application software. <<

Which means a procedural, record oriented language.

>> 3. When are they ever used separately? <<

The procedural, record oriented languages have file systems, so they can stand alone. The joke in X3H2 was that SQL really meant "Scarely Qualifies as a Language" because it must be embedded in a host language and cannot stand alone.

>> 4. One would expect there to be in theory common ground. <<

No, they are such different models of computation and have different purposes.
Well, there is a SQL/PSM standard which is better for applications with data in SQL than the older 3GL languages. Received on Thu May 13 2004 - 07:07:41 CEST