Re: The wisdom of the object mentors (Was: Searching OO Associations with RDBMS Persistence Models)

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:14:09 GMT
Message-ID: <RqYeg.15052$A26.352934_at_ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>


Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:

> On Tue, 30 May 2006 10:54:52 GMT, David Cressey wrote:
>
>

>>"Alfredo Novoa" <alfredo_novoa_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>news:1148940908.338233.159400_at_j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>
>>>>No, a DBMS is a bucket of bits with some low level rules to manage
>>>>those bits.  An OO application provides the beavior that the customer
>>>>wants to see.  We can completely eliminate the DBMS and replace it with
>>>>another of an entirely different form (non Relational for example) and
>>>>still have all the business behavior we need.
>>>
>>>>The people who sell databases have sold you, and the industry, a
>>>>misconception: that the database is the heart of the system.  This is
>>>>flawed.  The heart of the system is the application code.  The database
>>>>is a detail to be decided at the last possible moment and kept in a
>>>>position so flexible that it can be swapped out for another at a whim.
>>
>>I disagree completely with the above, which seems to have been written by
>>Robert Martin.
>>
>>The heart of the system is the data.

>
>
> What is the data?
>
>
>>For 20 years, I believed that the heart of the system was the application
>>code.  I wrote application code.  That's why I believed it.  But I've seen
>>enough to convince me otherwise in the last 17 years.
>>
>>Not that I didn't say:  "the database".  What if we change database vendors?
>>Been there, done that.
>>What if we rewrite almost all the application code?  Been there,  done that.
>>
>>What if we destroy all the data up to this point?  Time to update your
>>resume, everybody!

>

>
> But surely you can write your resume again. You can do it in MS-Word, or in
> a Cuneiform script on clay tablets. No such thing as data, or more
> generally information exist. There is a beautiful novel of great XX century
> philosopher S. Lem. All data of humankind were put into a giant DB. The
> first version of the main index had a size of a house. The secondary index
> could be kept in a large room. The process of indexing continued until at
> some point the index had become of one molecule size, so small, that the
> chief librarian lost it. Humans returned to stone age. Where were the data?
>
> Actually it is funny to see how relational approach intended to *abstract*
> data away is turning to its antithesis in DB-minds.

Dmitry, you are an idiot. Plonk. Received on Tue May 30 2006 - 16:14:09 CEST

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