I obviously can't speak for the list, but I find Fabian Pascal to be
very interesting, but quite academic. What I *think* that I mean by this
is that a lot of what he says seems to make theoretical sense, but I'm
unsure how applicable it is to practice. IOW the general feel that I get
from Fabian (and indeed Date) is that if something doesn't meet
relational theory then it is flawed. This may well be a good default
position to have, but I'm unprepared to say to folk who pay my wages
'sorry your data model isn't in 3NF' or 'you shall not use a
materialized view'. I *will* quite happily say 'so how will you ensure
data integrity?' 'what happens if another program uses the same data' or
'why did you use computed summaries?'
Niall
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ml-errors_at_fatcity.com [mailto:ml-errors_at_fatcity.com] On
> Behalf Of Daniel Hanks
> Sent: 19 November 2003 16:25
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: Re: Any articles/books that take relational theory
> and make it
>
>
> On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 ryan_oracle_at_cox.net wrote:
>
> > I swapped emails with a member of the list and Im having trouble
> > seeing how you can take 3NF, BCNF, etc... and turn that into DBA
> > speak. One of the guys told me that BCNF essentially means
> you have a
> > key that you can put a unique constraint on. Well that
> makes this much
> > easier to understand.
> >
>
> Hrm, I thought a key, by definition, implied a unique constraint...
>
> > All my theory books just discuss theory. Anyone know some
> that split
> > the difference. IE, not Codd, not CJ Date, Not the academic
> textbooks.
> >
>
> I'm not sure what the opinion on Fabian Pascal is here on the
> list, but I found his "Practical issues in Database
> Management" to be very good. It's subtitled "A reference for
> the thinking practitioner". It's not a textbook, but it does
> make you use your brain a bit. It might be what you're
> looking for. It has helped to clarify the relational model
> for me, but might put some people off as it's critical
> (without naming specific products) of most current
> implementations of 'relational' databases.
>
> > Thanks.
> >
> >
>
> -- Dan
> ==============================================================
> ==========
> Daniel Hanks - Systems/Database Administrator
> About Inc., Web Services Division
> ==============================================================
> ==========
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> --
> Author: Daniel Hanks
> INET: hanksdc_at_about-inc.com
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--
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--
Author: Niall Litchfield
INET: niall.litchfield_at_dial.pipex.com
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Received on Wed Nov 19 2003 - 14:40:44 CST
