Re: RDBMSs timeline poster

Op woensdag 16 oktober 2013 23:35:51 UTC+2 schreef Jan Hidders:
> ...
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>
>
> Well, no. Date and Darwin often make excellent points, and I like their
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> meticulous and clear style, but they mix that with a hubris and
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> unscientific attitude that I sometimes find hard to digest. Check for
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> example how rarely they have published peer-reviewed work that was
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> properly exposed to the critcism of scientific peers. I'm sure they
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> have good explanations for that,

while cleaning up my mailbox, I came across the following by Darwen :

"Well, I can just about read such material but I have no experience at all of writing it. I struggle with [example here], for example. I'm reminded of a recent paper by me, Date and Fagin, on new discoveries in the field of relational database normalization theory. The discoveries were Date's and mine but the paper was written by Fagin and would not otherwise have appeared as a peer-reviewed piece in a conference journal--the only one I have ever (co)authored."

iow : Darwen is not a scientist (in the sense that academically employed researchers are), he knows it and he doesn't pretend otherwise.

Also note how his remark bears connotations of the academic world systematically denying any work from outside said academic world, merely on behalf of things "not being written in the proper style", and this sometimes even _despite_ the actual content being both viable and valuable, purely scientifically speaking.

> but there is a reason why the
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> scientific process strongly suggests that ideas are not taken seriously
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> unless they can withstand the critical examination of fellow experts.
>

Yup. Presumes a willingness to submit _AND_ a willingness to actually review. I contend that academia as a whole has a very serious problem in that latter department, whenever the "ideas" originate from "outside the reservation" (see EWD1175). Heck, similar complaints were posted here very very recently by, who was it, Norbert Paul ? And I suspect this wasn't even a case of ideas originating "outside the reservation" !

Complaints like that smack of "the academic peer review process has degenerated into the politics of finding the clan that is willing to support you".

> To be fair, I don't see many other academics who are developing a
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> similar high-level coherent vision on what database should and should
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> not be.
Received on Sat Oct 19 2013 - 15:23:44 CEST