Re: Database design, Keys and some other things

"Marshall Spight" <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com> wrote in message news:1128057088.233421.297080_at_z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

> However, there is a definite trap in this general area, which
> is the trap of thinking that there is anything profound to
> be said about the relationship between the internal and the
> external predicate. That relationship, between the database
> and the world it models, exists only in the minds of the users
> of the system, and it is wholly an illusion, if you will.
> This is an important point, and it is also a philosophical one.

I've seen an interesting way of presenting this idea, or a similar one.

The authors call what the database serves up 'opinions' rather than 'facts'.
That is, 'in the opinion of the database, the employee with employee id 12345 has first name "Marshall" and last name "Spight"'. Or, 'in the opinion of the database, there is no employee with id 567890'. Or 'the database has no opinion as what Donald Trump's e-mail address might be, if he has one'.

I find this enormously refreshing, especially when it comes to missing data. Received on Sat Oct 01 2005 - 15:28:30 CEST