Re: Generalised approach to storing address details
Date: 12 Dec 2006 14:10:15 -0800
Message-ID: <1165961415.178049.198670_at_73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com>
Cimode wrote:
>
> RM was created on the first place in the perspective of getting away
> from the sterile hierarchic paradigm of computing...A way for breaking
> the vicious circle in which lots of idiots try to get us back...
>
Entirely false and self-serving.
First, RM was created in "reaction to the escalating costs required for
deploying and maintaining complex systems". It had nothing to do with
'getting away from the sterile hierarchic paradigm of computing' and
everything to do with providing a logical, declarative data model which
would allow "programmers to describe the information they wanted and
to leave the details of optimization and access to the database
management system". [Double quoted text from:
http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=299
]
If one objective of database experts is to broaden access to
databases and use of relational technologies, perhaps the experts
should show some concern for making such access and use available
through interfaces (like hierarchical) that are more intuitive
to non-experts instead of branding as 'idiots' anyone who cannot
master modeling with relations, formulating queries in SQL or
making sense of unnormalized SQL extensions (i.e., query
responses).
Your vitriol sounds to me like job security: As long as the gcd (greatest common denominator) interface to RDBs and RDBMEs (engines, servers) remains SQL, you will be in great demand. Considering that a small business could deploy a competent RDBMS for less than $5K and the annual cost of one SQL expert is upwards of $250K, one has to regard the SQL Meta Meta Model as the most significant obstacle to the widespread DIRECT use of database technology by those who are not SQL experts.
Rob Received on Tue Dec 12 2006 - 23:10:15 CET