Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Quote of the Week



The relational calculus is good in describing sets. But it´s bad at describing relations between data in different sets. Explicit identities (primary keys) need to be introduced and normalization is needed to avoid update inconsistencies due to duplication of data.

To say it somewhat bluntly: The problem with the relational calculus and RDBMS etc. is the focus on data. It´s seems to be so important to store the data, that connecting the data moves to the background.

That might be close to how we store filled in paper forms. But it´s so unlike how the mind works.

There is no data stored in your brain. If you look at the fridge in your kitchen, there is no tiny fridge created in your brain so you can take the memory of your fridge with you, when you leave your kitchen. --Ralf's Sudelbücher, Musings on relations - or: WinFS is not enough

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