Re: Entity and Identity

Walter Mitty wrote:
>> I believe that it's possible to unite them, and I've set myself that task.
> Good luck. I mean it.

I'm not underestimating the task, but them I don't expect to unite the communities, just to show a technology path that preserves the best of both. I can already demonstrate most of it, and explain how I plan to fill the gaps. After the tech works... we'll see how the politics pans out... I have little taste for that though.

>> It does require a change to the programming language paradigm
> You'll forgive me if I don't leap to immediately learn your scheme.

I don't have an approachable online presentation of the API yet, though I've shown it to local groups and there might be some video forthcoming.

However; the CQL compiler itself is an application of the API, so it does work. The relational persistence aspect is incomplete however.

> I don't think that modeling is always a design activity. Sometimes a model
> can be used to capture what's discovered during analysis rather than what's
> devised during design.

I think that Simsion's use of "design" here refers to the design of a model, not of an implementation system. Analysis is an important in modeling. The thesis is really exploring the social aspect however; are people aware that their models are just models, or do they see them as actually descriptive of the real world?

>> Sadly it's often not done in O-O projects, and those projects suffer
>> from the lack of it. I think *that* issue is the main reason for
>> complaining about O-O... but really, the problem is in the training
>> of the teams, and to an extent in the languages.

Yes, it's fine stuff. I spent the 90's building tools that implement and use the O-O paradigm, using my own OOA approach that goes back to about '83. Market forces wiped out an otherwise very successful and innovative product, which nevertheless had been used to build many large systems. The company survived, but only by a complete transformation, and isn't in that business now. Suffice to say, I have some experience with the irrationality of the software tools market.

> I expect that, if your CQL begins to garner some success, both groups of
> revolutionists will turn on you.

Probably true; people are pretty venial. My hope however is that they'll both see an opportunity to get what they wanted all along.

-- 
Clifford Heath, Data Constellation, http://dataconstellation.com
Agile Information Management and Design