Re: The Practical Benefits of the Relational Model

In message <ancq68$t0k$1_at_sp15at20.hursley.ibm.com>, Paul Vernon <paul.vernon_at_ukk.ibmm.comm> writes
>>>Your message betrays a need to research the relational model. ;-) I
>>>would suggest An Introduction to Database Systems by C. J. Date.
>
>>Thanks, I read it some while ago. I'm aware of the theoretical
>>background to relational algebra, but I wonder how long it will be
>>before OO databases have an equivalent.
>
>Ho ho. Rather misses the point that the Relational Model had a theoretical
>background from day 1. Trying to formalise a whole mess of things after
>the fact is non trivial and won't produce you a nice clean model, if
>infact you can find a single model at all.

I'm sure it's non-trivial, if it was easy it would already have been done. And you're right that there are a lot of different things labelled as object oriented databases. The relational model codified and rationalised a lot of what already existed in database systems, and we have built RDBMS on that theory.

It's certainly possible that someone will develop a similar theory based on what we now call object oriented systems. It won't need to cover everything we now know as object oriented systems. It will just need to provide enough of a theoretical framework for the development of future systems.

-- 
Bernard Peek
bap_at_shrdlu.com
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