Re: The tragedy of SQL

From: Mladen Gogala <gogala(dot)mladen(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: Raymond Brinzer <ray(dot)brinzer(at)gmail(dot)com>, Guyren Howe <guyren(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: "pgsql-generallists(dot)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: The tragedy of SQL
Date: 2021-09-14 20:51:39
Message-ID: 267eb411-2098-6238-d0e4-b9df9f95c7a5@gmail.com
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On 9/14/21 16:07, Raymond Brinzer wrote:
> By analogy: Arabic and Roman numerals both describe the natural
> numbers. Hence, they have the same mathematical properties. Spending
> a little time doing algebra with Roman numerals should convince
> anyone, however, that how you express a concept matters a lot.

Analogy is not an accepted logical method. I do agree that the style of
expression matters. That is why we have literature. Saying "hey there"
and "friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" can have the same
meaning in the given context but the latter expression is much more
poetic. As software engineers, we are very much opposed to poetry,
especially those among us using Perl.

However, the stated purpose of the SQL language is to describe sets and
subsets. It's supposed to be verbose. Storage extensions are database
specific and are here for performance reasons.

--
Mladen Gogala
Database Consultant
Tel: (347) 321-1217
https://dbwhisperer.wordpress.com

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