Re: A database theory resource - ideas

On 2007-03-16, Marshall <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 16, 6:58 am, "JOG" <j..._at_cs.nott.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> So my question to cdt is to ask what /you/ believe the priorities for
>> such a resource would be?
>> - which pivotal questions are most misunderstood?
>> - where does most ignorance lie in our field?
>> - are there are any crucial topics that you believe it would be useful
>> to address that I have not listed.
>
> My suspicion is that such a body of information would be
> able to grow for a long time. That is, I wouldn't think it
> would be particularly important to try to identify all
> the topics up front.
>
> That said, here are some of my thoughts:
>
> The purpose of normalization is the elimination of update
> anomalies, not space savings. (Dammit!)

It's worth dealing with insert and delete anomalies too.

>
> A Guide to the Normal Forms. These were hard for me; when
> I first started reading about them, the best information I could
> find generally plops you down in the middle of a bunch of
> fairly abstract statements about functional dependencies etc.
> and I had a really hard time linking it to anything familiar.
> It would be cool to have something that lists what all the
> functional dependencies are, identifies what the important
> ones are, and focuses on them. (BCNF, anyone?)

Relational theory as a branch of mathematics needs to be covered too. There are going to be people for whom that is the correct language to use. That has to be another entry point into the documentation.

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