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

"Jan Hidders" <jan.hidders_at_REMOVETHIS.pandora.be> wrote in message news:dwJEc.170804$gS1.8567900_at_phobos.telenet-ops.be...
> Dawn M. Wolthuis wrote:
> >
> > Dawn's Information Principle:
> > The entire information content as well as metadata of a functional
database
> > is represented in one and only one way,: namely, as mathematical
functions.
>
> Interesting. Reminds me of FDM, the functional data model. Ever heard of
> that?
>
> http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~peter/fdm-position.html

Once again thanks for the link, Jan! I have the feeling that you know everything I wish I knew. I heard of the Functional Data Model only after I looked at the relational model then looked at PICK and tried to figure out what PICK was. Every PICK file is a mathematical function, including the Vocabulary file for the entire system. So, I googled for "functional data model" and was surprised to get quite a few hits. I bookmarked a bunch of them, but have not read much. I doubt that PICK fits whatever the FDM is, but since I'm referring to it as a Functional Database (compared to a Relational Database), I definitely will need to figure out just what the FDM is.

I read the link above, but I must be in one of those cloudy states because I didn't end up with a much better idea of what the FDM was. I have this link on my "to read" list http://coronet.iicm.edu/dm/scripts/lesson06.htm along with some others, so eventually I'll get to it. Real work & family keep getting in the way of catching up on my reading list ;-)

--dawn (aka mother of the bride) Received on Thu Jul 01 2004 - 04:15:13 CEST