[Novalug] January Meeting Topic(Oracle Poll)

Kevin Cole kjcole@ubuntu.com
Wed Dec 6 11:54:52 EST 2006


Doug Needham wrote:
> Should this topic be renamed Database Flame :) ?
> 
> <IMO>
> 
> <RANT>
> 
> All Databases are similar. There are various levels of expertise in each
> of them.

Since we're ranting... ;-)

I don't know... Every time I look at another relational database system
that uses SQL, I miss System 1022 and its successor System 1032, which
were relational database systems with a much more useful and logical
language (although it was unique to System 1022/1032 as far as I know).
It was both a query language and a procedural language that novices and
programmers alike could appreciate.  A simple comparison of the inter-
active use:

SQL

    >>> select name from addressbook where zip = 14621;
        ...output...
    >>> select phone from addressbook where zip = 14621;
        ...output...
    >>> select birthday from addressbook where zip = 14621;
        ...output...

System 1032:

   >>> set addressbook
   >>> find zip = 14621
       30 records found
   >>> print name
       ...output...
   >>> print phone
       ...output...
   >>> print birthday
       ...output...

The system remembered the state of your query across subsequent
commands.  One could write rather complex, yet readable code
directly in the native PL as well as via calls from other
languages. No need for a degree in "relational calculus vs.
relational algebra".  Another useful feature was
the "stacking" of the selection set:

   >>> find all
       1367 records found
   >>> find zip = 02134
       500 records found
   >>> consider on
   >>> find all
       500 records found
   >>> find year = 1995
       25 records found
   >>> consider on
   >>> find all
       25 records found
   >>> consider off
   >>> find all
       500 records found
   >>> consider off
   >>> find all
       1367 records found

While it may not be comparable to databases used by multinational
corporations, we kept 30 years of demographic data as well as
standardized test responses (~500 questions) and scores on roughly
40,000 students/year in our databases.  I can't tell you much about
the resource usage, but in terms of human productivity, it beat the
crap out of SQL. Unfortunately, when the DECsystem-10 and the VAX
went, so did our licenses for System 1022/1032.

There may have been an SQL engine buried in it somewhere, but it none
of the manuals spoke of such a beastie, as far as I recall.

-- 
 Kevin Cole                    |  Key ID: 0xE6F332C7
 Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo Team     |     WWW: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/KevinCole
 Washington, D.C.  (USA)       |   Phone: +1.202.234.0213

 "Using vi is not a sin. It's a penance." -- St. IGNUcious, Church of Emacs



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