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

From: Dawn M. Wolthuis <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 16:10:34 -0500
Message-ID: <cal48g$fkv$1_at_news.netins.net>


"x" <x-false_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:40cd9175$1_at_post.usenet.com...
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> "Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.com> wrote in message
> news:cahpg9$bg6$1_at_news.netins.net...
> > "x" <x-false_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message
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> > > "Anthony W. Youngman" <wol_at_thewolery.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
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> > >
> > > > 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.
> > >
> > > So all data in a MV database can be represented in relational model,
> > > but not all data in a RDBMS can be represented in MV model :-)
> > >
> > > Which one is more expressive ? :-)
> >
> > Easy question --
>
> It was a joke, not a question :-)

and you know I could see the rhetorical nature of the question, right?

> It shows what we get when playing with words and mixing issues.
>
> Codd in 1979 ACM paper said:
> Actually, the task of capturing the meaning of data is a never-ending one.
>
> With regard to meaning, two complementary quests are evident:
> (1) What constitutes an atomic fact (atomic semantics)?
> (2) What larger clusters of information constitute meaningful units
> (molecular semantics)?
>
> I think your quest is (2)

yes. smiles. --dawn Received on Mon Jun 14 2004 - 23:10:34 CEST

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