On the usefulness of tables definitions in RM...

From: Cimode <cimode_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:47:45 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <f6b37bab-b76d-4fc9-ae83-f4c00e1bd40f_at_x21g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>

I lately came to the conclusion that teaching relation structures and manipulations by using tables inherently induces a bias to think of relations as relation values as opposed to relation variables. However, I believe that tables are elements of the presentation layer since they are only *one* possible representation in time of a specific relation.

I am curious on whether this confuses more than it helps as far as operation definitions are concerned. What representations are to be preferred to avoid confusions ? In what context ?

Opinions welcome. Received on Fri Aug 20 2010 - 15:47:45 CEST