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

"Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com> wrote in message news:cage91$kif$1_at_news.netins.net...
> Keep in mind that unlike an RDBMS schema, the vocabulary for MV/PICK
systems
> is descriptive of the data and not constraining. The same data can be
> described in many different ways. The association would really be a type
of
> derived data.

How is this useful? I've seen this in COBOL layouts, and was underwhelmed; it always seemed to cause more problems (and invite even others) than it appeared to solve. How is this more effective than a view, for example?

• erk