Malcolm: SQL for the command line: "show"

Posted Mar 26, 2009 14:06 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: Malcolm: SQL for the command line: "show" by flewellyn
Parent article: Malcolm: SQL for the command line: "show"

You'd be surprised ...

IBM are on record as saying that their version (the U2 databases) is the fastest growing product in their database VAR sales.

And International Spectrum is holding their conference right now - against a background of collapsing conference attendances (typically down 25 - 50 %), they're holding their own - I think they were down 7% (or was it up?)

imho relational *theory* is great. Unfortunately, relational practice falls foul of Einstein's corollary to Occam - practice is TOO simple, therefore system complexity (as in all the stuff *round* the database) rises sharply as a result. SQL queries are a classic example :-)

Cheers,
Wol

Malcolm: SQL for the command line: "show"

Posted Mar 28, 2009 0:55 UTC (Sat) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

SQL extensions are an even more classic example. Look at MODEL, for
instance. In case the relational model is 'too hard', now you can turn
your DB into a tiny spreadsheet and bash at it in the query. How
relational...

(actually it *is* useful, but that doesn't mean it's not totally bizarre
and screwy. The real problem here is SQL's halfassed incapable
implementation of half the relational calculus in a non-Turing-complete
fashion. But it paid for my house so I can't complain *too* terribly
hard.)