Path: dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu!spool.maxwell.syr.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews.google.com!news4.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!bcklog1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.pipex.net!news.pipex.net.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 06:47:55 -0500 Reply-To: "Roy Hann" From: "Roy Hann" Newsgroups: comp.databases.theory References: <1152252241.485354.324010@s26g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1152270169.948260.305470@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: A good book Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 12:47:54 +0100 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original Message-ID: Lines: 34 NNTP-Posting-Host: 82.133.118.245 X-Trace: sv3-v5g4Z3irCH5iRib2JvfNsDIGvpsIX93to1UHI4PWdEb8ShrlPL8G1I4a4m8JhglQAlwkvkUluzIvlMV!k8JFnk1wrqSFNLf8x6sxjyNNr/VdaYHZW4pacgZCcRRwCO5ttOJSzOCkTpbcyzOd/UD07VEaXHcn!68KJyDo= X-Complaints-To: abuse@dsl.pipex.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@dsl.pipex.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32 Xref: dp-news.maxwell.syr.edu comp.databases.theory:43148 "Cimode" wrote in message news:1152270169.948260.305470@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com... Cimode wrote: > The objectives of > BUSINESS MODELING FOR DATABASE DESIGN Cimode has failed to point out that this is not a book but a paper, available only from www.dbdebunk.com/page/page/764907.htm. I am certain it is informative and to be highly recommended, but I doubt it offers the kind of epiphany the OP seems to be looking for. I am certain such a book could be written, but I am also certain it hasn't been. I have been a long-time reader of the relational literature (over 20 years) but the nearest I came to a pulse-racing aha! moment was when I was experimenting with transition constraints, jury-rigged using bits of SQL. It was butt-ugly but I suddenly realized just how much application code could be dispensed with. But then again, many of my students have an aha! moment when I show them the set-oriented solution compared with the row-oriented solution to the same problem. I suspect therefore that what it takes to impress you will depend on where you are starting from. If you don't realize you have a big problem, a solution is unlikely to be amazing. I am reminded of the story, supposedly from the early part of the 20th century, of an army officer showing a desert sheik an aeroplane doing aerobatics. "Isn't it amazing?", asked the army officer, clearly impressed himself. To which the sheik asked, "Isn't it supposed to do that?" Roy PS: I wonder if the best prospect for the OP's kind of book would be an O'Reilly "Dataphor in a Nutshell"! :-)