Re: Development as Configuration

From: mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org>
Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 10:26:33 +0200
Message-ID: <427c7bbc$0$167$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl>


dawn wrote:

> mAsterdam wrote:

>>dawn wrote:
>>>Alfredo Novoa wrote:
>>>>>Sure, there are other features that are important
>>>>>for DBMS tools, such as security and referential
>>>>>integrity, but many a software application has included
>>>>>code for those features too. To date it appears to me
>>>>>that people license DBMS tools for the PRIMARY,
>>>>>not negotiable, feature of having an API for
>>>>>creating, reading, updating, and deleting
>>>>>data on secondary storage devices,
>>>>>even if there are other important features
>>>>>too. Right?
>>>>
>>>>...The primary function of a DBMS is
>>>>to manage data and not to be misused as a file system.
>>>
>>>I'm not suggesting what the purpose is -- I saying what a
>>>primary requirement from the user's perspective it is meeting.
>>>There are DBMS's that are missing a lot of features,
>>>but I don't know of any that are deemed to be DBMS's
>>>and are missing a CRUD API. So, I would suggest that
>>>from the standpoint of someone who is looking for a
>>>DBMS, one feature they would not be interested in
>>>in compromising on is whether it has a CRUD API.
>>>It is, I'll repeat, a primary feature for any DBMS product.
>>>Do you really disagree with that?
>>>If so, please provide a
>>>URL for a DBMS that is missing this feature.
>>
>>It is not a feature. In order to be able to manage the data, the
>>DSMS must assume there is no data traffic in or out of the database
>>outside the control of the DBMS. So, any DBMS _has_ to provide a
>>data manipulation interface.
> 
> And just what do you call this capability that a DBMS product has that
> is not a feature of the product?  It seems to me that providing this
> API is a rather important feature of the product, essential even.

Using feature in the sense: "a prominent aspect of something", the CRUD API is the most visible part of a DBMS to developers. In this sense the CRUD API is a feature.

I was using 'feature' in this sense: "The solution to a consumer need or problem." (http://www.shapetomorrow.com/resources/f.html), and so - I think - were you.

The data manipulation interfaces (including the CRUD API) of a DBMS, are necessary to garantee it's datamanagement capabilities. It is a solution to a provider's need. The 'consumer' wants the datamanagement, so he submits to exclusively use the datamanipulation interface provided by the DBMS.

Now for a nice term to disambiguate ... hmm... I'll have to leave that to the native speakers. Received on Sat May 07 2005 - 10:26:33 CEST

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