Re: The fable of DEMETRIUS, CONSTRAINTICUS, and AUTOMATICUS
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 15:36:45 -0400
Message-ID: <tfudnWYaVpDLmeHcRVn-oA_at_comcast.com>
> I would contend that it is never appropriate to consider SQL code to be
> data, it simply is not.
Whether it IS code or not depends on the "Clinton Cliche": It depends on
what the meaning of the word "IS" is.
Whether there is a homomorphism between the SQL code and a certain body of
metadata is quite another matter.
Both you and Marshall have argued quite persuasively that SQL DDL is merely
syntactic sugar for what can be expressed equally correctly and completely
in meta data.
I would be amazed if this turned out to be possible for SQL DDL, but not
possible for SQL DML. I would also be amazed if this turned out to be
possible for SQL DDL and DML, but not possible for procedural code in
PL/SQL, and/or Java. After all, you can write Lisp s-expressions that will
correctly and completely mimic anything that is computable in Java or
PL/SQL.