Re: Role of functional dependencies in database design
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 17:34:06 +0100
Message-ID: <nvitacolonna-DBAB09.17340523022015_at_freenews.netfront.net>
In article <64b9cd98-8a5e-4f95-a805-a8ab8c80ed70_at_googlegroups.com>, Erwin <e.smout_at_myonline.be> wrote:
> Well, even if you can manage to get that formalism fully specced (a tall
> order imo), the main problem will still remain that if you apply that
> formalism to any given input, the output produced will only be as reliable as
> the input it is applied to.
That is the unsolvable problem of every specification: you may be guaranteed that the output is correct wrt the specs, but how do you ensure that the specs are correct? In principle, they should be easier to write and understand than the system you want to verify, but it doesn't mean that they do not require a good deal of thought and technical competence. Still, formal specifications are arguably useful: safety-critical software would not be as reliable, for example.
Nicola
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