From: ME

To: Editor

Date: 9 Dec 2004

 

I think this article, IBM Moves the Database Goalposts, might be of some interest.

 

 

From: Fabian Pascal

To: ME

 

IBM never understood or cared about the relational model, so it was just a matter of time before they discarded one of their major inventions. Yet more evidence that the american era is over. With respect with dominant empires, it's poetic justice, I guess.

 

 

From: Hugh Darwen

To: ME

 

I cannot help remarking that one of the people mostly closely associated with IBM's invention of SQL is also somebody who has been an active participant in the development of the XQuery W3C standard.  The person is one of several fine engineers at IBM's Almaden Research Center who have received high honours from IBM and ACM for their work on database.  All of the people I'm thinking of here are well-known figures in the database world, and there are at least four of them (not all still with IBM).  None of them is somebody I rate highly as a language designer (and they don't all claim to be good at language design, either).  Fine engineers dabbling in  language design is to my mind a major cause of the gritty language design we have seen in the database field, both before Codd's work made decent database language design a feasible proposition and after that event.

 

I wasn't aware that any work had been done on declarative constraints for XML databases (if there is indeed such a thing as an XML database). Perhaps this is just my ignorance.

 

I wasn't aware that any work had been done on database design for XML databases (if there is indeed such a thing as an XML database). Perhaps this is just my ignorance.

 

I'm glad I left IBM when I did (July 2004). If I had been invited as an IBM employee to participate in this effort my response possibly would have led to disciplinary action and a deleterious effect on my pension. As it is, I'm now worried that IBM's eventual losses on this ridiculous venture will have a deleterious effect on my pension.

 

My 1978 prediction regarding the future success of SQL turned out to be wildly wrong.  My 1990 prediction regarding the future success of OODB turned out to be spot on. My 2004 prediction regarding the future success of XML databases is similar to my 1990 prediction for OODB.

 

 

From: Fabian Pascal

To: Hugh Darwen

 

Tell me about it. Were you aware of If You Liked SQL, You'll Love XQuery?

 

I got tons of flak and insults on this article (see Slashing a Slashdot Exchange Parts 1, 2, 3, 4), which tells me it's spot on.

 

No, it's their ignorance at IBM.

 

Maybe not. After all IMS was one of the most profitable products at IBM. I always said that going from stupid fad to stupid fad is very profitable for the industry, but a disaster for users and the society as a whole. And not just the IT industry operates this way. Why do you think the US is going down the drain?

 

Short term  is success. I predict that in 5-10 years there will be yet another "paradigm shift" that will claim to solve all the problems caused by XML. Who knows, somebody may even reinvent the relational model as something new (see Old Approach, True Implementations).

 

 

Posted 2/4/05