Re: Database in depth, by C.J. Date

On 14/06/05, Post, Ethan <Ethan.Post_at_ps.net> wrote:
> Actually as I understand it Einstein was not all that great at math
> either, but he had the ability to conceptualize things that no one else
> could. I believe you can be a pretty good DBA and not really be great at
> math.

Thinking of some of the systems we've had put in by suppliers and the conversations I've had with their design/development people, I suspect that some people in the field (quite a lot of them actually) worry more about how elegantly they can describe the data model in mathematical terms and not so much about "Will it work?" There was a similar culture going around when I used to be a C developer.

I think there has to be a balance between producing pretty diagrams and producing a system that will actually fulfil the spec and do what it's supposed to do.

Stephen

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It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption.

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