Re: 4 the Faq: Strengths and Weaknesses of Data Models

From: Laconic2 <laconic2_at_comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 14:12:50 -0400
Message-ID: <9PydnapBatmvju3cRVn-hw_at_comcast.com>


"Marshall Spight" <mspight_at_dnai.com> wrote in message news:t4Tbd.369798$mD.220108_at_attbi_s02...

> You don't have to add much to SQL to get a Turing-complete language.
> Maybe just recursive queries would do it.
>
> Anyway, I still think a single unified general purpose PL with data
> management features would kick ass. Sort of a combination of
> Haskell, Prolog, SQL, and Java. Ha ha ha! Sounds crazy doesn't it?

I think Oracle's PL/SQL does kick ass. There are a few ways in which it falls short of being my favorite PL, but it will certainly do when I'm in a tight spot. As far as being object oriented goes... well you can always put PL/SQL code inside a trigger and make it event driven. As far as I'm concerned, once code is event driven, it's most of the way there to being object oriented.

In fact, when I learned Oracle after doing Rdb for years, PL/SQL was my favorite thing about Oracle! Far and away superior to the nearest equivalent in Rdb.

(Just for the sake of balance: my favorite thing about Rdb, when compared to Oracle was CREATE DOMAIN.
User defined domains, coupled with comment fields in system tables, makes it possible to have your own mini data dictionary right in the metadata of the DBMS. The absence of CREATE DOMAIN in Oracle (c. 1995) SHOCKED ME! Especially since it doesn't look that hard to implement, to me. Received on Fri Oct 15 2004 - 20:12:50 CEST

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