Re: Tables and Views

Laconic2 wrote:
>
> ... What if we've been thinking backwards all these years.
> We've been saying, one way or another, that a view is an
> expression pretending to be a store.
>
> How about looking at it the other way? How about viewing a table as a store
> pretending to be an expression?
> Where does this lead?

I don't get it.

'a + b = c'

Is this an expression or a formula?
Both, of course, depending on how you look at it.

It would of course be possible to assign less-conventional interpretation rules and have it parse and mean something completely different, but

(1) looking at it with a traditionally accepted syntax in mind, I see an equation-expression, consisting of a lefthand-side addition-expression, an equation token and a variable-token. The addition-expression consists ... etc.

(2) looking at the meaning, I see a formula, asserting that there are three quantities, a, b and c, related in such a way that a and b sum up to c. I need (1) to get to (2).

'create table foo (bar numeric);' an expression or a store? It is a statement, when given to the right interpreter will render you something which you can treat as a store by giving that same interpreter manipulative commands later on. Received on Sun Sep 26 2004 - 16:20:14 CEST