Re: the relational model of data objects *and* program objects

"Neo" <neo55592_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1113424655.629433.126180_at_f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>> Codd is dead, Date sells pedagogic literature, rest ..."hangers on"
>> Bob is not an obstacle, rather a rare form of usenet troll.
>
> :) If I understand you correctly, you are asking if there is a model
> that allows data and program objects to be represented and manipulated
> as systematically as data is handled by RM.

That's a reasonable angle.

>Could you give an extremely
> simple example that one might use to evaluate a model's degree of
> success or failure?

In brief, a characteristic of a successful model would be use by the community

However I will attempt to be specific ....

Imagine an organisation with a database in which alone is kept, say, a record of experimental results that can be expressed as integers:

create table results
experiment_date datetime not null,
result int

Data is entered directly to the database via the table data entry tools supplied by the vendor of the database system.

One application also exists associated with the database system, aside from a data entry app for the data, and that is a report:

select experiment_date "Date",

          ave(result) "Average Daily Result",
          count(*)  "Total Experiments"

This report is written as above in SQL and is also run directly from the database using a query tool provided as part of the database management system

Let me summarise the situation:

1) a database management system
2) a data table
3) a data entry application within the DBMS
4) a reporting application within the DBMS

In this situation we have both the data and the applications associated with a DBMS fully defined within the DBMS software.

A cogent database system theory should be able to address the relationships between the data and the applications written in its native (SQL) language, especially if they are in the form of stored procedures.

Does this make any sense?

Pete Brown
Falls Creek
Oz
www.mountainman.com.au Received on Sat Apr 16 2005 - 14:19:37 CEST