Re: Negative Numbers in "Identity" or" Autonumber" fields

Kevin Kirkpatrick wrote:
> ...
> Assignment is obvious (and assignment implies representation)... I've
> always wondered about the need for "equality". Consider
> "fingerprint_scan" a domain in which the only means for comparison of
> two fingerprint_scan values is "resembles(F1, F2, points_to_match)".
> As such, equality is not defined and F1=F2 should be considered
> meaningless. Does this really break anything in the relational model
> - after all, I can still do theta joins, just not equijoins.
> ...

I think I am with you on this one, but I should warn you that having nattered on about it for years to various people, I'm pretty certain that I'm in a very tiny, nearly solitary, minority. Personally, I don't even care if the theta semantics change from time to time, although dreaded maintenance might result.

p Received on Wed Mar 21 2007 - 23:33:25 CET