Re: Normalize until neat, Automate until Complete

Kenneth Downs wrote:

> Jan Hidders wrote:
> 

>>> 
>>> I have a simple question for those who oppose automation on the grounds
>>> that
>>> it denormalizes.  If normalization is intended to ensure correctness,
>>> and your system disallows writes to automated columns, have you not
>>> preserved
>>> correctness while also improving the lot of your users?  If so, isn't
>>> that what it's all about?

> 
> hmmm, I must be one of those practitioners who has only a shallow
> understanding of the theory.  As far as I can tell, relational algebra and
> relational calculus are both about querying existing data (though I am
> willing to be corrected).  Under what terms might I find the theoretical
> foundation for the *generation* of information out of other information?
> 

I should have pointed out when asking this question that I am aware of the use of derivations in views and selects, what I have never found is any systematic treatment of their inclusion in tables, except for the donning of scary masks and a lot of dancing around howling, "away evil spirits, begone!"

-- 
Kenneth Downs
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