Re: Operationalize orthogonality

"mAsterdam" <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org> wrote in message news:447ab7bd$0$31643$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl...
> Tony D wrote:
>
> > ... the relational model is orthogonal to type. That
> > means the relational model makes no demands and imposes no
> > restrictions on the types available (apart from the
> > obvious requirement for a boolean type).

I would say that there are some requirements on the types: - equality is defined
- the values can be denoted in the "relational" language

> What would the requirements for a dbms be to have
> this orthogonality implemented?

> ISTM the dbms should not have native types
> (except boolean and maybe type generators
> like relation() and attribute() ) but instead
> rely on a lower level, external to the dbms,
> type system.

What is "external" in software ? Crossing an interface ? That interface is then a set of requirements.

> This poses the next question: what would
> be the requirements for this type system?

Whose requirements ? Received on Mon May 29 2006 - 16:15:25 CEST