Re: newsgroup for asking general SQL questions?

On Apr 27, 2:00 pm, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Jason S wrote:
> > On Apr 27, 10:41 am, Bob Badour <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> >>If you have done that already and turned up absolutely nothing, then try
> >>comp.databases or here.
>
> > It's not that I've turned up nothing, it's that I've turned up
> > information that either doesn't sound like it's reliable, or it's
> > product specific.
>
> > what's the difference between the two groups?
>
> I haven't paid any real attention to comp.databases for years so perhaps
> I am not qualified to enumerate differences. That said, I would expect
> the difference in the names probably reflects the difference in the content.
>
> I expect you will find greater support for hackish kludges in
> comp.databases than in comp.databases.theory Here, you will find greater
> support for discussing the underlying mathematics.
>
> You will also find considerable overlap between the two groups so if in
> doubt cross-post to both groups.

Well, there are some of us that try to counter the desire for hackish kludges. In particular the desire for many new developers to think all you need for a primary key is a numeric ID column gets my attention regularly.

We generally discuss the practical matters of data models, joins and such. I try to avoid DB theory here, so I have sent some discussion back to you guys (e.g. neo with his XDB). Getting a poster's datamodel to First normal form is often a bigger issue here than getting it into Fifth normal form. There is more focus on whether a query fits the SQL standard than whether it fits a mathematical model of databases. So there is some high level experience here but turned more toward day to day DB issues. Here it is more about the practice of DB development.

If in doubt about which group to post to (comp.databases or comp.databases.theory) I would not suggest posting to both. Maybe default to here (comp.databases) if you are unsure. If it really is a theory question, we will let you know either the answer (if it's an easy clear-cut one) or point you to the theory group if it involves an issue settled.

Others may chime in here but I think that gives a better summary of comp.databases than a place for "hackish kludges". 8^)

Ed
PS no offense taken, at least not by me. Received on Fri Apr 27 2007 - 20:29:02 CEST