OK. My last addition to this painful thread.
> Your position depends on having a syntax so simple
> that it is somehow worth implementing as a native
> capability instead of the tied modules others have
> pointed out.
No it does not. I am not suggesting that a rdb modelling
tied version of MD arrays would be in core. Of course it
would not.
I am suggesting that a rdb modelling tied version of MD
arrays might be nice. And that for it to be its nicest:
A) the general mechanisms that these tied arrays
would need to work adequately will need to be in
place in core;
and
B) the syntax and behaviors chosen for the core MD
array features shouldn't jar with what makes sense
for the db modelling tied version of MD arrays.
I'll wrap with a final thought. I think there's scope for
a simple generalized relational model (Nd arrays,
joins between arrays, and Nd discontiguous slice
subsets across joined arrays) to be a powerful yet
simple general purpose algebra for creating
normalized tabular datastructures. This has nothing
to do with dbs, even less to do with SQL, and
everything to do with general purpose programming
expressiveness.
OK. No more from me on this topic, at least not in the
perl world.
