Re: Examples of SQL anomalies?

Roy Hann wrote:
...
> The database is not reality. It is (only) a faithful record of our
> testimony *about* reality.
>
> A database design that presumes to model reality instead of modeling
> what we will actually say about reality is not fit for purpose. And if
> a model of the latter is more complicated, tough. Simple but wrong is
> not right.
>

Right on. It's not only a presumption but a pretense too. And yet people will often mention the 'real world' when criticizing some null-less system or extolling one that pretends nulls are values. When it comes to db's I'd say they are too damn lazy to get their facts straight.

I'm pretty sure Donald Rumsfeld would embrace nulls based on this infamous quote: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

or

"If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't, I'll just respond, cleverly."

Like Rumsfeld, the null proponents pretend to produce facts from nothing. A skilled politician could easily get re-elected by substituting the one-word answer "maybe" for every one of the replies Rumsfeld is quoted as saying at
http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/quotethis/a/rumsfeldquotes.htm Received on Thu Jul 10 2008 - 17:12:25 CEST