Re: OO versus RDB

From: paul c <toledobythesea_at_oohay.ac>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 17:45:01 GMT
Message-ID: <xkUog.107949$Mn5.32781_at_pd7tw3no>


Bob Badour wrote:
> Christian Brunschen wrote:

>> ...

> Fair enough.
>
>
> also because I am coming mainly from the direction of
>> being a pragmatic software developer rather than a deep theorist on any
>> particular subject.

>
> With all due respect, software development is applied mathematics. One
> cannot be pragmatic about it while not knowing the underlying theory.
>
> Similarly, pragmatic electrical engineers know Ohm's Law, Maxwell's
> Equations and Stoke's Theorem. I cannot imagine an electrical engineer
> claiming both pragmatism and ignorance of the theory of his field.
> ...

I think this could be qualified a little. Sometimes it is enough to know that verging into certain territory will put one in over one's head. I remember learning years ago that much of electrical engineering has to do with recognizing when the 'first approximation' is sufficient for circuit design, eg., certain circuits don't require the calculation of say, impedance or capacitance, ie., so-called second or third approximations. Applying a given rdbms product seems similar, for example, it seems one could spend a few years trying to understand 3VL, or given the shortness of life, just say no and decide to avoid nulls.

(Granted that the word "approximation" in relational theory context is by itself a dangerous one to use, but that's a danger in all parallels.)

p Received on Thu Jun 29 2006 - 19:45:01 CEST

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