Why are [Database] Mathematicians Crippled ?

> > Therefore, it is a tiny project, if implemented by an experienced practitioner
> > who is not crippled by the impediments.   
> > ---- And it is difficult, for anyone else, with the extent of difficulty 
> > directly related to the extent that they are affected by the impediments. 
> > ---- This is a case in point, of how mathematicians cripple [other] mathematicians, 
> > all by themselves. 

Read the Topology thread, please. Ignore my posts if you like. Just read the others, the back-and-forth between two accomplished and published mathematicians. Then consider a short synopsis of that entire thread. Notice:
- Norbert's task is a straight-forward, small, implementation task.

• he is intimately familiar with his problem space
• as much as an abstract thinker can be, abstract relations, etc.
• he has some experience with the theory of how to implement a project, OO, UMAL, etc
• he wants to implement, he asks for help from practitioners
• but he cannot understand the relevance of a word they say, or their diagrams (which use a standard for that implementation, that has been with us since 1985)
• mathematicians cannot help him
• except for Tegiri, who is practical enough to understand what he needs to do, and theoretical enough to communicate with a person at his location, to have the only discourse possible
• thank you Tegiri, you are a breath of fresh air !
• so the project progresses, in the only manner it can, at snails pace, clarifying the communication of abstract ideas
• it will take one year, at least to get a working prototype
• where a capable practitioner would have implemented the entire project in a week
• and the context is, millions of systems that have that concept, topology (to an useful extent, if not to the extent that Norbert claims he has), have been in prodction for over thirty years.

Why is that ?

Why is it that a capable, accomplished mathematician cannot communicate in the real universe, and implement a small project, either with others doing the implementation (where only communication and understanding of both worlds is necessary), or by crossing over into the real universe, and implementing it himself.

Why is he so crippled ? In a task that thousands of mathematicians in non-database fields have succeeded ? Why is he crippled in the application of his own field ?

What is crippling him ?

Because the heart of it, on this forum, and as per his declared intent, is about the Relational Model, which as a mathematician, he believes he knows, (which is now clear he doesn't, or he knows only some tiny fraction of it, and that in mathematical terms only), why is it, with the "mathematical exactitude", and the "simplicity" that mathematicians recognise in the RM, that he cannot implement it ?

(Thinking that a fraction of something, is the whole of it, is dangerous. You find that out when the rubber hits the road, when you start communicating with practitioners, yes.)

Cheers
Derek Received on Fri Jan 30 2015 - 05:23:47 CET