Re: consolidation of multiple rows

DA Morgan wrote:
> Alex Kuznetsov wrote:
>
>> Strange. In our trade most great people are largely self taught in the
>> areas they are great in - the industry is new, and people are coming
>> up with innovations all the time.
>
> Innovations all the time ... yes. Innovations all the time in medicine
> too.
>
> But "new"? I would disagree.
>
> Alan Turing, widely considered the father of computer science, died in
> 1954. In 1969 I was writing Fortran on IBM mainframes and we aren't
> talking bread-boards by any stretch of the imagination.
>
> So unless you are well into your 70s or above computers have been
> widely available (not PCs I'll grant) your entire lifetime.
>
>> Linus Torvalds came up with lots of really cool stuff when he wasn't
>> even a Master. Sergey Brin and Larry Page do have PhDs, and they came
>> up themselves with what makes them great.
>
> Not to take anything away from Linus as I am a proud user of Linux
> but I think you exaggerate just a bit. By that standard we would have
> to credit Bill Gates for his great work with Basic. And the google
> crowd ... I don't want to start an off-topic flame war here but like
> Gates I am more impressed with their ability to market than code.
>
>> Returning to normalization, it is not a very complex theory. When I
>> was getting my education, it did not exist yet, but if it did, it
>> would be taught in my first year, and it would be an easy course. In a
>> top notch university you have to learn a lot of more advanced math to
>> get your Master's degree. More to the point, for me as a development
>> lead, as well as for many DBAs, normalization is just one of many
>> challenges, and a relatively easy one to put it mildly.
>>
>> Memorizing last names has nothing to do with the ability to administer
>> databases. Names of inventors are forgotten and or omitted all the
>> time. This is especially true for foreign names. Consider periodic
>> table of the chemical elements - it is being taught in American
>> schools, but the Russian name of its inventor is rarely mentioned.
>> Similarly, names of inventors on Normal Forms may be omitted of
>> forgotten, especially in other countries, and that is OK just as well.
>
> Teaching at university I hear this argument all the time ... from
> those who haven't a degree. I'll grant you don't seem to be part of
> that crowd ... but I'll still respectfully disagree.
>

Yes, universities always were good at teaching irrelevant information and then testing on it.

Try doing like I do - teach C, C++, Java, etc. in one week. That's 5 straight days, 7.5 - 8.0 hours per day, no homework. And at the end have students who can write code.

> I've no doubt someone could, in theory, be a physics genius without
> knowing the names Newton and Einstein. But I suspect you will agree
> that the chances are about the same as winning the lottery.
>

Of course. Knowing who Einstein or Newton were has nothing to do with learning physics.

> I am not impressed by arguments that go "well it is true for everyone
> else but it doesn't relate to us."

I'm not at all impressed by your arguments.

-- 
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Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex_at_attglobal.net
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