Re: What databases have taught me

From: Bruno Desthuilliers <onurb_at_xiludom.gro>
Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 11:41:53 +0200
Message-ID: <44a8e662$0$599$626a54ce@news.free.fr>

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:37:34 GMT, Jay Dee wrote:
>
>

>>Well, no. A function, let's say, an operation on integers which
>>returns a rational (approximation, of course), like DIVIDE,
>>requires that the types exist before the function -- but the
>>types don't require the function at all.  Granted, many OO
>>languages bundle the methods up in the class -- but that's a
>>mistake.

>
>
> It is a philosophical question. In case you have missed my previous posts,
> I reject data. So my answer is no. Types don't exist without operations and
> values. All operations have to be defined as well as values.

AFAIK (given my very restricted mathematical knowledge...), this is the definition of an "algebraic structure" :

"""
an algebraic structure consists of one or more sets closed under one or more operations, satisfying some axioms. """

So is there a 1:1 mapping between CS types and algebraic structures ?

(real question, not trying to make a point...)

-- 
bruno desthuilliers
python -c "print '@'.join(['.'.join([w[::-1] for w in p.split('.')]) for
p in 'onurb_at_xiludom.gro'.split('@')])"

Received on Mon Jul 03 2006 - 04:41:53 CDT