Re: The MySQL/PHP pair

> It makes sense to bring it up since I have yet to PROVE all of my concerns.
> I have proven, I think, that 1NF as currently implemented by most software
> developers (the old version of 1NF) has no mathematical basis. Since others
> have already ditched it, or redefined it to the point where every relation
> is necessarily in 1NF, that is just a start.

I think 1NF has a very mathematical basis. Everything stems from the fact that you're representing logical propositions. When thinking about relational theory, I always find it helpful to sometimes forget about relations themselves and go back to first principles: predicates and propositions.

So a 1NF one is "John's car is blue"

A non-1NF one is "Bill said on Monday 'John's car is blue'"

The elements, or arguments, whatever they are called, of a first-order proposition can't be other propositions. They can be strings that can be interpreted as propositions by some other system (say a type engine), but this doesn't invalidate the fact that they aren't propositions to the main system.

Now you might say, well, you don't want to start from first-order predicates, but that's a totally different matter.

Paul. Received on Wed Nov 03 2004 - 22:24:55 CET