Re: Date, Darwen, Pascal and the alternative to Nulls in the RM

From: David Cressey <dcressey_at_verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 12:42:53 GMT
Message-ID: <hJwUf.5600$kB1.4717@trndny07>

"JOG" <jog_at_cs.nott.ac.uk> wrote in message news:1143088437.488504.19900_at_j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> I'm starting to believe Codd was most likely aware of these issues,
> and rather conceded to pragmatism. He realised something was afoot
> mathematically when he added column headers, which recent proponents
> tend to ignore, and similarly I imagine he knew that for the RM to
> function, nulls were going to be a necessary evil.
>

I don't think you have to imagine. One of his 12 rules called for "systematic treatment of missing values". That's not the same as calling for "systematic elimination of missing values".

I find a thread of pragmatism running throughout Codd's writing. I think that if it didn't pass the "laugh test" for pragmatists, it wouldn't be where it is today. Received on Thu Mar 23 2006 - 06:42:53 CST