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

From: Marshall Spight <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 22 Apr 2006 10:24:19 -0700
Message-ID: <1145726659.104433.267490@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com>

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:

> There wasn't much work on components either for languages like Prolog, or
> for SQL. So it actually is difficult to say if with more advanced languages
> based on same paradigms one could have composable abstractions.

Yes, this has been on my mind lately as well. The abstraction facilities
in SQL are poor to nonexistent, and I really wonder what a relational language with a modern set of abstraction facilities would look like. Perhaps even hygenic macros could be considered.<gasp>

> One concern
> is that abstractions seem tend to be hierarchical (like values -> types ->
> classes -> sets of types in OOPL.) But that is an observation from the
> opposite camp, it might be wrong.

I think I know what you mean, but I'm not sure. SQL/prolog is about relational operations, rather than tree operations, so maybe a module system (or whatever) should be organized relationally, rather than hierarchically? I am currently leaning away from this idea. I think that some kind of relational parametric polymorphism is a better answer.

Marshall Received on Sat Apr 22 2006 - 12:24:19 CDT