Re: What databases have taught me

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:52:38 GMT
Message-ID: <WRfng.1663$pu3.43521_at_ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>


Keith H Duggar wrote:

> Bruno Desthuilliers wrote:
> 

>>Marshall wrote:
>>
>>>And yet, people make that mistake again and again and
>>>again. The focus is on the easy part: structure.
>>
>>But is that *really* the easy part ? Kind of *seems* easy,
>>but... At least 80% of the complicated code I've ever seen
>>came from a wrong structure. And it's obvious that if the
>>structure had followed the processing needs, then the code
>>would have been way much simpler (and better). As a matter
>>of fact, whenever I find myself writing complicated code,
>>I *know* there's something wrong.
> 
> What happens when different processing needs demand different
> structures that "follow their needs"? Then some computations
> become easier while others become harder. This is "expression
> bias" and for me it has been an annoying problem with network
> models. And it drives one inexorably to the relational model.

One might add that the 80% of complicated code Bruno saw resulted from having a surfeit of structures to choose from and a paucity of available manipulations in the first place. Received on Sat Jun 24 2006 - 20:52:38 CEST

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