Re: We're doomed

Roy Hann wrote:
> Tony D wrote:
>

>> Oh well.
>>
>> Take a programmer and ask them what they think a relational database
>> should be, you get MySQL.
>>
>> Ask a programmer what they actually want to use, you get this clunk.

(1) ie. not read them?

> ... The last thing they want is
> software that could do away with 75% of them.
> ...

(2) ie. do away with 75% of both programmers and their code?

Solving (1) and (2) seem to me to be the most basic (ie. layman's) purposes in favour of relational approaches for making db apps.

With luck, getting rid of 99% of code might eliminate 75% of programmers!

> Programmers should go the way of stenographers and travel agents.
>

At least stenographers and travel agents didn't leave a "legacy" (what a strange word to use - it's hardly a gift - used to be called the "maintenance problem" and sometimes the "maintenance nightmare").

Over time, just as with the OO fad, many people will eventually realize what quicksand they build on. But they still won't know what to do about it, just as most are today confused by the infidelities of so-called rdbms'es, but not willing to admit it enough to let that threaten "jobs for the boys".

I think you are both right and that the historical lesson is the minority/rest of us will continue to be frustrated by more of the same. I admire people like D&D for their high purpose (precision), but often think the thoroughness that entails is a pipe-dream because in mainstream appl'n circles the typical reaction to precision is basically that it is elitist, which is not a PC word in the western world today, and therefore impractical. If this is true, maybe the only hope is for relational advocates to concentrate on new kinds of apps or niche apps. I'd say no matter how faithful it is, the more intricate a relational language is, the more it will be abused by the ignorant and usurped by the profiteers.

For another laugh, here's some more pathetic "legacy" - I have worked with three PhD's, including two former CS professors, whose whose math and CS schooling never mentioned predicate calculus. Certainly in the N.A. educational system, let alone the WWW, the emphasis today propagates that ignorance, being more concerned with social and commercial skills. Received on Thu Feb 26 2009 - 15:43:03 CET