Re: Why is "group by" obligatory in SQL?
From: Bob Badour <bbadour_at_pei.sympatico.ca>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:10:55 -0300
Message-ID: <4a69f934$0$23760$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net>
>
> It's omnipresent, apparent in the writings of the authors of pretty much
> all the authors of today's popular web languages, not unlike the irony
> of the two most written about western world leaders of the last ten
> years who obviously depend on their belief in God for justifying one or
> big military invasions, no matter what technical obfuscations their
> underlings offer up. We are all prisoners of language no matter how
> logical we pretend to be and no real progress ever happens without
> several changes of generation (the cryogenic fans conveniently ignore
> this problem, maybe even some of the more wacky stem-cell researchers too).
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:10:55 -0300
Message-ID: <4a69f934$0$23760$9a566e8b_at_news.aliant.net>
paul c wrote:
>> paul c wrote: >> >>> Cimode wrote: >> >> <snip> >> >>> Great post, Cimode, Djikstra as profound as ever, this stuff bears >>> repeating every so often. >> >> Dijkstra is da bomb! >> >> >>> Too bad so little remains of the history of db language development >>> from the 1970's, I think there are still lessons to be learned from >>> the scanty archives. The motivations of those days must be murky to >>> anybody who didn't grow up with assembler languages, in fact I'd say >>> they remaiin murky for most of the people who were there. >> >> ... >> >>> In the commercial world of that time there was a lot of emphasis on >>> so-called 'structured programming techniques', which we know today is >>> just a form of language mysticism, at least insofar as it disguises >>> the real programmer's interface. >> >> Did you intend the irony? >> ...
>
> It's omnipresent, apparent in the writings of the authors of pretty much
> all the authors of today's popular web languages, not unlike the irony
> of the two most written about western world leaders of the last ten
> years who obviously depend on their belief in God for justifying one or
> big military invasions, no matter what technical obfuscations their
> underlings offer up. We are all prisoners of language no matter how
> logical we pretend to be and no real progress ever happens without
> several changes of generation (the cryogenic fans conveniently ignore
> this problem, maybe even some of the more wacky stem-cell researchers too).
Your response leaves me wondering whether you know what irony I meant and wondering what irony you mean. Received on Fri Jul 24 2009 - 20:10:55 CEST