Re: A Normalization Question

> You have failed to show that they represent the *same* fact.

You have *failed* to define what is a fact?

However, regardless of whether the string 'brown' is categorized as a fact or not by your definition, they still represent the same thing, the string 'brown'. Having three things that represent the same thing in one db is redundant. While the role that each string 'brown' plays is different (first unsystematically refers a person, second to a color, third to a street) the three strings themselves represent the same thing, the string 'brown'. This is redundant. A thing and the string which names it are two separate things. Below is approximately how XDb1 normalizes the three strings.

Thing Person Color Street
1 ->2 ->3 ->4

Person Name
2 ->5

Color Name
3 ->5

Street Name
4 ->5

String Sym1 Sym2 Sym3 Sym4 Sym5 ....
5 ->6, ->7, ->8, ->9, ->10

Symbol

6      b
7      r
8      o
9      w
10     n

Note, there are no tables in XDb1, only things. However certain groups of things can be considered a list, tree, table, matrix, etc. Received on Thu Jul 08 2004 - 21:07:11 CEST