Re: SQL for presentation

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 22:21:02 GMT
Message-ID: <iXWqg.6743$pu3.149896@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>

frebe73_at_gmail.com wrote:

>>>At this forum, it is often claimed that almost all kind of data
>>>transformation could be done using SQL select statements.
>>
>>Many of us think SQL should be abandoned entirely so I am not quite sure
>>where you got that idea.

>
> Ok, any declarative language based on relational calculus. Better?
>
>

>>>In web applications, the presentation - HTML - is a data structure. If
>>>select statements could make almost any kind of data transformation,
>>>why couldn't we use select statements to produce the HTML text?
>>
>>Relations state facts. That is not to say that relations state the same
>>facts in any arbitrary structure or with any arbitrary formatting.

>
> Couldn't relations also that facts about a GUI?

Yes, that was already implied further in my reply below.

>>  I see a
>>
>>>problem in the fact that HTML is hierachial and select statements
>>>doesn't seem suitable for returning hierachial results. But what if a
>>>relational version of HTML existed, would the select statement be
>>>suitable for buildning the GUI too?
>>
>>If you are asking whether one could devise a relational schema to
>>describe a document or user interface, the answer is obviously yes.

>
> If a relational schema could describe a html document, why couldn't a
> declarative relational language be used to derive that document from
> other data? Why do we have to use imperative languages to build a html
> document?

If one has a relational description of a document or user interface, why on earth would one bother with HTML? Received on Wed Jul 05 2006 - 17:21:02 CDT