Re: First Impressions on Using Alphora's Dataphor
From: Christopher Browne <cbbrowne_at_acm.org>
Date: 27 Aug 2004 02:39:56 GMT
Message-ID: <2p7l7sFhrhjuU1_at_uni-berlin.de>
Date: 27 Aug 2004 02:39:56 GMT
Message-ID: <2p7l7sFhrhjuU1_at_uni-berlin.de>
In the last exciting episode, lajos.nagy_at_gmail.com (Josh Hewitt) wrote:
> Sorry for the long post, but I felt that this might be an
> interesting topic to discuss in this news group.
No, that's a very interesting set of observations.
The challenges involved in the transformations of domains as you experiment with them is interesting indeed.
I'm seeing, in this, a tad of need for some dynamic of type transformations. Two things leap to mind as opposite ends of the spectrum:
- The CLOS notion of defined "classes," which actually provide a way to transform instances into the new form should you happen to redefine them.
<http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/stagenfun_upd_efined-class.html>
That's object-oriented, not relational, but it sure points to a way to update "tuples" on demand...
- The ML notion of polymorphism, where types can be left abstract somewhat until the last moment; you can define functions that are strongly typed, but which do not care what they look like 'til the moment that you actually call the function.
-- select 'cbbrowne' || '_at_' || 'acm.org'; http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/spreadsheets.html "We defeated the enemy with teamwork and the hammer of not bickering." -- The Shoveller, Mystery MenReceived on Fri Aug 27 2004 - 04:39:56 CEST