Re: Temporal database - no end date

"DBMS_Plumber" <paul_geoffrey_brown_at_yahoo.com> wrote in news:1169232116.191458.62760_at_38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

>

> If your model of time can't reason in the abstract about time--Joe's
> analogy with rational and irrational numbers is spot on--then you don't
> really have an answer.

So, how do you model your continuous time if all you have is at best a subset of rational numbers (IEEE 754) ?

>Models of time that divide the continium into
> discrete units, and then force all intervals, aggregations and the
> results of any operation into that model, just don't work.

Really ? How come that people do it all the time by using digital computers that do not have real numbers ? All the computers have are a subset of integers and a subset of rationals ?

>Modeling
> time using intervals, and being very careful about your implementation,
> is simply more general.
>

No kidding ? Received on Fri Jan 19 2007 - 21:08:13 CET