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

Em Sat, 15 May 2004 22:58:07 +0100, Anthony W. Youngman escreveu:

> I take it Leandro is parading his ignorance, rather than seeking
> enlightenment.

        If you had any to offer...

> But *I* don't know what "data" is "as it really is", and from the
> answers I've got so far I don't think anybody else does.

        As far as I remember my Philosophy, that's where English Objectivists -- that's not their real name, I forget it -- went wrong. They wanted to start from data, and couldn't define that.

        That's the other reason for my not answering the original question -- there is no answer, other than the trivial -- and useless -- ones already given. The other reason, it's irrelevant to our discussions here.

> The best definition so far is for data as it is defined in the
> relational model (and that's pretty much the only proper definition
> anybody's tried to give).

        Which definition, in which version of whose version of it?

> And if we haven't got a philosophical definition, we can't compare the
> philosophical and theoretical definitions, and therefore we haven't got
> a clue as to whether either "the relational model mostly works", or (and
> this is important) where its limitations are and where it breaks down.

        It would be more interesting to compare not to a non-existing, non-achievable philosophical definition, but to misunderstanding. Like the differentiation of data and metadata.

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