Re: By The Dawn's Normal Light

From: Gene Wirchenko <genew_at_mail.ocis.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 08:35:46 -0700
Message-ID: <pa42o0t4hh390i6h2bclhmv7jqgnufjko4_at_4ax.com>


"Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.comREMOVE> wrote:

>"Gene Wirchenko" <genew_at_mail.ocis.net> wrote in message
>news:ojj0o0h8co50055hpql7s7171r59gbdn5v_at_4ax.com...
>> "Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.comREMOVE> wrote:
>>
>> >"Gene Wirchenko" <genew_at_mail.ocis.net> wrote in message
>> >news:et70o013kluk5j5tc4g6h8pkcl62ac4pq8_at_4ax.com...
>> >> "Dawn M. Wolthuis" <dwolt_at_tincat-group.comREMOVE> wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> >> >It makese sense to me that types like video and pictures would be
>black
>> >> >boxes to the "collections engine" but a list of text has a structure
>that
>> >> >the collections engine could accomodate. --dawn
>> >>
>> >> Video and pictures have structure. Why could the collections
>> >> engine not know it when it can know about text structure?
>> >
>> >Yes, it could, but when querying data I would want to retrieve
>information
>> >that is given in words. Asking for all films that include Brad Pitt
>would
>>
>> An artificial distinction. Any information could be given in
>> words.
>
>But that is beside the point. I'll try to state it more clearly, since I
>think you will agree with what I'm thinking even if not with the way I said
>it.
>
>When we are talking about query languages, we are asking questions that make
>sense to us in our language (mapped to the query language syntax) and
>expecting answers in our language -- values of attributes, for example. So,
>querying is, by its nature, related to language. Even if we have a need to
>search a DIME-encoded video file for a string, it is still language we are
>mapping our question and answer to.
>
>When we have values of data in a list, we could do some string searches,
>just as we could with a video, looking for the string "John_Doe" in a list
>of e-mail addresses, for example, but if the database knows that this
>structure is unlike a video in that there is a list of values, then we could
>extend our query language to ask questions that work with the structure.
>So, we can ask "give me each e-mail address that includes the person's last
>name" and get 0 to many responses back for each person.
>
>Did that make sense? --dawn

     No.

     I think you are confusing values and representations.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:

     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.
Received on Thu Oct 28 2004 - 17:35:46 CEST

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