Books and two series of papers for the data professional/user who thinks critically and independently, rather than follows the IT industry's fad driven "cookbook mode". Both series offer accessible explanations of the real RDM – what we believe it would have been had E.F. Codd completed his work—and the practical implications thereof. It is derived from a re-interpretation of his work that is consistent with its theoretical foundation and is distinct from the conventional wisdom that emerged in the industry after Codd's passing. 

Scroll down to order.

 

PAPERS

 

UNDERSTANDING THE REAL RDM Series ($25/paper)

This series review, analyze and interpret E. F. Codd’s published papers to make the letter and spirit of the real RDM from which its practical advantages derive accessible to the independent, critical thinking practitioner who prefers understanding to following the fad-driven, “cookbook approach” of the industry.

PRACTICAL DATABASE FOUNDATIONS Series ($15/paper)

 This series:

• Dispels common, misuse and abuse of data and relational fundamentals;
• Clarifies fundamental terminology, concepts and features of the real RDM that are ignored, distorted and misunderstood in the industry;
• Conveys the practical advantages of  RDM of which practitioners are unaware and/or which the industry has failed to deliver.

 

Table of Contents

 Introduction

1.      The Normal Form

2.      The First Normal Form

3.      Domain Decomposability & Atomicity

4.      1NF & Tables

5.      SQL & 1NF

5.1.     Repeating Groups & Repeated Attributes

5.2.     IP & SQL

 

The Key to Relational Keys – Primary Keys  v2 (forthcoming)

Business Modeling for Database Design v5 (forthcoming)

Relational Database Design – Formalizing the Informal v1 (forthcoming)

Relational Domains - The Database Glue v2 (forthcoming)

 

BOOKS

 

THE DBDEBUNK GUIDE TO MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT DATA FUNDAMENTALS - A DESK REFERENCE FOR THE THINKING DATA PROFESSIONAL AND USER, October 2016 ($40)

(Description and Excerpts from Preface & David McGoveran's Foreword)

Reviews:

·         Craig Mullins 

·         Todd Everett

·         Toon Koppelaars

·         Davide Mauri 

This guide consists of 50 sections 1-3 pages long, each based on a carefully selected Q&A, each of which debunks one or more major common and entrenched myths/misconceptions/fallacies about data and relational fundamentals and discusses the practical implications thereof.

Instead of a Table of Content, there is an index of misconception categories:

·         Data independence (logical, integrity, physical)

·         Data integrity (business rules, integrity constraints, database consistency)

·         Data models (relational, hierarchic, network)

·         Relational data sub-language (vs. computationally complete language)

·         Database and application-specific functions

·         Domains (simple, non-simple, data types)

·         Entity supertype-subtypes (and inapplicable data)

·         Keys (natural, primary, surrogate)

·         Levels of representation (conceptual, logical, physical)

·         Missing data (NULL, many-valued logics)

·         Normalization, further normalization, denormalization, normal forms

·         Relational Data Model

·         Relations (base, derived) vs. R-tables

·         SQL and relational fidelity

·         Types of model (conceptual, logical, physical, data)

·         "Unstructured data"

which references, for each category, all the sections in which the misconceptions in that category are discussed, possibly in different contexts, or with different emphasis. Each section has a short list of directly relevant further readings, often including my papers).

How to order

1.     Check or money order (preferred): email me with papers wanted for mailing address.

2.     PayPal: email me with paper wanted for instructions.

PDF will be emailed upon receipt of check or notification of payment by PayPal.

 

Revisions and new versions

·         Same year revisions and new versions are free.

·         Next year revisions are free, new versions are half price.

 

 

Last updated  9/19/23