Re: By The Dawn's Normal Light

"Alfredo Novoa" <alfredo_at_ncs.es> wrote in message news:e4330f45.0410251817.69dd341d_at_posting.google.com...
> "Marshall Spight" <mspight_at_dnai.com> wrote in message news:<%0efd.6194$R05.3543@attbi_s53>...
>
> > Math is not governed by democratic principles, but language is.
>
> But 1NF is a mathematical concept.

Ah, but I was not discussing 1NF. I was discussing "1NF".

> > Definitions lie in the domain of language. If I define, all by
> > myself, 1NF as being the same thing everyone else calls "waffles"
> > and I get into a disgreement with someone over whether tables
> > are in 1NF by definition, with me taking the position that
> > 1NF is something tasty you pour syrup on, "by definition" then
> > we aren't having a useful discussion, because we don't have agreed
> > upon terms.
>
> But this is not the case. The modern interpretation of 1NF is the
> direct result of fixing the flaws of the earlier interpretation.

When you say "the modern interpretation" do you assume that this interpretation is the only one people are using?

From my perspective, there are a number of different incompatible definitions. To get a sense of what's commonly said out there, let's see what a popular search engine has found:

http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Afirst+normal+form

Marshall Received on Tue Oct 26 2004 - 14:53:20 CEST