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

From: Mikito Harakiri <mikharakiri_at_iahu.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 17:25:39 -0700
Message-ID: <dB8wc.37$924.256@news.oracle.com>

"Paul" <paul_at_test.com> wrote in message
news:ZR7wc.11426$NK4.1480800_at_stones.force9.net...
> Mikito Harakiri wrote:
> >>I still maintain that you can regard a database as a collection of
> >>tuple-axioms, with the DBMS playing the part of logic. I'm not just
> >>saying this is an analogy, I'm claiming it's a proper isomorphism.
> >
> > Seriously, they are not axioms.
> >
> > <quote from Mathworld>
> > A proposition regarded as self-evidently true without proof. The word
> > "axiom" is a slightly archaic synonym for postulate. Compare conjecture
or
> > hypothesis, both of which connote apparently true but not self-evident
> > statements.
> > </quote from Mathworld>

>

> Well in our database world we take tuples such as
> <name='Hrundi V. Bakshi', age=35> as self-evident truths.

We are playing words here, what is "self-evident"? (My expectations from this thread are quite low, though).

OK, another important feature is generality, for example:

for any x and y: x*y=y*x

Constraints are general, database tuples are not.

> > The tuples are the facts that user gathered outside of math realm -- in
the
> > physical world.

>

> But we can have a worldview that just has logic and tuples, where the
> real world is beyond our horizons. For the purposes of deciding whether
> a structure is axioms and logic, the real world is irrelevant. And
> tuples don't have to be gathered from facts in the physical world - we
> could have a database with facts from a fantasy world.

But fantasy world certainly don't obey laws of logic! Received on Fri Jun 04 2004 - 19:25:39 CDT