Re: Storing data and code in a Db with LISP-like interface

From: Marshall Spight <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 16 Apr 2006 13:26:02 -0700
Message-ID: <1145219162.554122.207810_at_i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>


Bob Badour wrote:
> Neo wrote:
> >
> > the focus of the experimental db is to provide the most flexible
> > method of representing things. I believe I have already surpassed RM.
>
> [...] Complexity of structure is not a worthy or useful goal in data
> management.

Without necessarily endorsing Bob's general style of diction, I have to agree with him on this point. The easy part of data management is designing structures. The hard parts are maintaining integrity and providing useful manipulations. Flexibility in some ways is the opposite
of structure; both provide benefits, but there is a significant degree of tension between the two. Simply maximizing flexibility doesn't lead to good design--that necessarily abandons all the value that structure provides. One way this manifests in Neo's design is the kind of code he has to write to do retrieval; it's quite complicated, resembling more
a turing-complete procedural language than a query language.

Marshall Received on Sun Apr 16 2006 - 22:26:02 CEST

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