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

In message <c0e3f26e.0405161021.612d774a_at_posting.google.com>, Tony <andrewst_at_onetel.net.uk> writes
>andrewst_at_onetel.net.uk (Tony) wrote in message
>news:<c0e3f26e.0405160530.257134c8_at_posting.google.com>...
>> "Anthony W. Youngman" <wol_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>>news:<PAu0b6GWsqpAFwSz_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk>...
>> > 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.
>>
>> You keep saying that (on and on, tediously...) but it just doesn't
>> work, does it? After all, didn't NASA put a man on the moon using
>> Newtonian Mechanics? Expensive and complex successful experiments
>> have been done to observe the effects of relativity, but it hardly
>> impacts on the real world as lived in by us humans does it? If your
>> analogy holds any water at all (to give you the benefit of very large
>> doubt), it suggests that relational theory will do just fine for
>> pretty much anything we ever want to do "in the real world".
>
>Perhaps more to the point, Newtonian Mechanics is an attempt (accurate
>or not) to model "how the world works". By contrast, database theory
>(any database theory) is merely trying to come up with the best way to
>computerize book-keeping. The two are hardly comparable endeavours,
>are they?

But both are attempts to apply a mathematical model to a real world problem. Viewed from a dispassionate oversight, both are instances of the SAME problem, and the same techniques can be applied to solving them. Namely "how well does my mathematical model work in the real world?".

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