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

In message <40c502d8$0$6968$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl>, mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org> writes
>>> I'll state my intuition (not backed up by experience)
>>> about not taking the time to analyse data:
>>> postponing the basic issues will bring volatile
>>> quick wins, pushing depth investment (cost) of
>>> reflection and the real benefits of data assests
>>> into the future. So, if and only if your survival
>>> depends on quick wins, go for it.
>> Except that Dawn's experience (and most MV consultants, too) is that
>>the cost of maintaining old MV databases is lower than that of
>>maintaining relational ...
>> They're cheaper to write, they're cheaper to maintain, and they take
>>a LOT longer to get decrepit ...
>
>As I understood your writings you claim to analyse
>your data before taking a well-informed decision to
>prefer MV implementation above a RDBMS implementation.
>How can my statement about quick wins trigger this response?

Except you don't understand. I prefer to put normalised data into a MV database, on the basis of past experience that it is ALWAYS easier to understand the result.

Don't forget. If you've analysed your data properly, then the conversion of data from MV-form to RDBMS-form is trivial and easily done "on the fly" by any modern MV database.

So if I put my data into an MV database I can access it as if it were in an RDBMS. However, the converse is not true.

AND it's a hell of a lot simpler to understand the "real world <=> logical data" mapping in MV as opposed to relational - in MV it is almost invariably one real world object "instance of class noun" maps directly to one "RECORD in a FILE". In relational, typically one "instance of class noun" will map to many rows spread across multiple tables.

Experience says MV is simpler to understand. Maths says MV gives me the best of both worlds.

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