Home -> Usenet -> comp.databases.theory -> Re: Infinity and indefinite extensibility

Re: Infinity and indefinite extensibility

From: -CELKO- <jcelko212_at_earthlink.net>
Date: 20 May 2006 11:42:55 -0700
Message-ID: <1148150575.564720.155650_at_j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> 






>> There is probably some standard terminolgy for what you are about to read.<<





Most of it comes from Cantor and set theory.  Before Cantor, infinite
was a process and hence the "tipped over" 8 notation.  It is the
programmer's endless loop written with a symbol to show there is no
upper bound.  This is why you see it in limits and summation of a
series.



After Cantor, we got the aleph notation.  The numbers are put into a
set and the set is treated as a completed whole thing and not a process
-- the SQL model.  It gets a bit tricky when you do summation over a
set instead of looping over a sequence.



If you have a test for set membership that meets certain conditions,
then you do not need to mateiralize the whole set.
Received on Sat May 20 2006 - 20:42:55 CEST












Original text of this message