Re: In an RDBMS, what does "Data" mean?

In message <c0e3f26e.0405150622.553893d5_at_posting.google.com>, Tony <andrewst_at_onetel.net.uk> writes
>> All this talk about how "Newton got it wrong, and Einstein got it right"
>> is a bunch of claptrap. The people in this forum, for the most part, don't
>> know what they are talking about.
>
>True. For the most point our expertise, if any, is in databases not
>physics. But some people just can't help bringing their secondary
>school-level knowledge of physics into every topic for some reason
>(not that I'm claiming to have any more than that myself). It is very
>tiresome.

And some of us like bringing our 3rd-year undergrad Physics knowledge (from a top-5 Uni) into it, too :-)

It's just that I find Newtonian mechanics an excellent analogy. To express it in computerese, both Newtonian Mechanics and Relational Theory are instances of the class Mathematical_Theory. BOTH are mathematically perfect (well, I know Newtonian Mechanics is).

I just find it fascinating that, while we know that Newtonian Mechanics doesn't belong in the set Accurately_Matches_The_Real_World, so many people here (on the grounds of it's mathematical correctness) seem to believe that relational theory does. That argument just doesn't make sense to me.

Cheers,
Wol

-- 
Anthony W. Youngman - wol at thewolery dot demon dot co dot uk
HEX wondered how much he should tell the Wizards. He felt it would not be a
good idea to burden them with too much input. Hex always thought of his reports
as Lies-to-People.
The Science of Discworld : (c) Terry Pratchett 1999