Re: Objects and Relations

On Feb 23, 11:24 am, paul c <toledobythe..._at_oohay.ac> wrote:
> Lemming wrote:
> > On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:50:55 GMT, Bob Badour
> > <bbad..._at_pei.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> >> ...
> >>Humans tend toward laziness and complacency. Something has to shock them
>
> >>from their revery before they act.
>
> > Blimey, seems like school is out again.
>
> > I'll come back in a week or so. Maybe there will be some grownups
> > here by then.
>
> Blimey yourself. Things aren't likely to change in ten years at the
> rate this group is going. The thread title, "Objects and Relations"
> ought to tell any regular reader that it is about apples and oranges aka
> minotaurs and two-legged creatures.

Yes, like most on this NG you say that RM+RA is for recording and managing data, while OO is not. Unfortunately this view is simplistic.

Consider the following

*   Images
*   Text
*   Source code
*   Scenegraphs
*   CAD drawings
*   Tri-surfaces
*   Web pages
*   Sound data
*   Video data

None of these areas appear to be handled particularly well with RM +RA. Yet they all represent problem domains where data needs to be recorded, persisted and managed.

My original post provides an insight as to why there are two types of data.

If you think RM is suitable for all data, why don't you represent the equivalent of SQL expressions relationally as well? Wouldn't that be nice! In fact don't stop there, each post to the NG should be nothing but a set of tables. That will fit with your view that all data is inherently relational. You should be able to suck the post into your favourite RDBMS, submit some queries and mine the data to find out everything you need to know.

In fact why stop there? Be bold and suggest that all digitally stored data in the world, including all web pages, music, video and source code be represented at the logical level using relations. That way we get all the power of RA and what more could you want? That nasty, ill-defined OO thingy can be regarded as a mere and trivial concern for the "physical layer", and something for the grunts to worry about.

[snip] Received on Sat Feb 24 2007 - 01:13:15 CET