Re: A new proof of the superiority of set oriented approaches: numerical/time serie linear interpolation

From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 12:16:54 -0300
Message-ID: <4639fcb7$0$4042$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net>


David Cressey wrote:

> "Cimode" <cimode_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1178192551.663643.78380_at_o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
>

>>On May 3, 12:05 pm, "David Cressey" <cresse..._at_verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>>>"Cimode" <cim..._at_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>
>>>news:1178174344.866049.272810_at_h2g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>On 2 mai, 21:47, paul c <toledobythe..._at_oohay.ac> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Cimode wrote:
>>>
>>>>>...
>>>
>>>>>>Brian,
>>>
>>>>>>Don't you think you are overcomplicating things?
>>>
>>>>>I certainly do.  RT isn't as complicated or subtle as this thread is
>>>>>making it out to be.
>>>>
>>>>I was not thinking about *subtleness*.  I am having trouble following
>>>>Brian's wordy line of thought.  I am not sure he and I have do not
>>>>have the same perception of what logical and physical independence
>>>>is.  I was also refering to terms I am not familiar with such as
>>>>*database state*.   To me they are totally foreign to RM formal
>>>>theory.
>>>
>>>>Maybe you could clarify.  Thanks.
>>>>Regards...
>>>
>>>>[Snipped]
>>>
>>>I think that "state" is a fundamental concept in computing.  As such,

>
> Brian
>
>>>and others ought to be able to use it to communicate rather precisely,
>>>without needing to present a formal definition.   If you know what a
>>>"database" is and you know what a "state" is,  I think you know what a
>>>"database state" is.
>>>
>>>Having said that,  I'll admit that I'm often lost by Brian's argument.

>
> He
>
>>>seems to be arguing that transaction atomicity is an undesirable feature

>
> of
>
>>>our data model.  If I'm reading that right,  I abandon the effort to
>>>understand the rest of what he's saying.
>>
>>I am not sure formal theory requires the need for *state* concept.
>>The fundamental concepts of relation value, relations variable or
>>simply relation are sufficient to describe the evolution of a specific
>>relation in time.  What does bringing concepts that are clearly OO
>>oriented (I have heard about db *state*, db *instantiation*, db
>>*instance*) add to the equation? Not much I am afraid.

Cimode has things backward. Instantiation is a logical concept and the OO folks borrowed the word from logic. One creates a proposition by instantiating a predicate.

I see no reason to abandon the word just because someone borrowed it for something else.

>>Quite frankly, I am not interested that much into a terminology debate
>>but rather into *how interpolation could eventually serve as a way to
>>handle missing information*.  So far, Vadim has brought some
>>interesting insight through the addition of a theorical regression
>>method implemented in SQL (I will try to adapt it as soon as I find
>>sometime).  I am afraid the discussions about *design quality*, *SQL
>>critiscism* are in fact off topic.

>
> I apologize for my part in hijacking your thread.
>
> One thing you might want to pursue that would interest me is "what kinds of
> data lend themselves to interpolation, regression, or any other kind of
> smoothing, and what kinds do not."
>
> If we know that on June 10, a certain person's name was Mary Smith, and on
> September 3, her name was Mary Jones, interpolation is not going to help
> us figure out her name on sugust 17.
>
> Is it only numerical data that lend themselves to the kind of approximation
> and/or inference that you are exploring?

Interpolation has a number of other traps. Suppose one evaluates: f(x) = (x-1)/(x-1) at x=0 and x=2. One will reach a vastly wrong conclusion if one even tries to interpolate f(1). Received on Thu May 03 2007 - 17:16:54 CEST

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