In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Dawn Wolthuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
I can imagine two possible curriculae in which a textbook could work.
The area I have been researching might lend itself to a supplemental
text (far easier to get approved for a course than an actual text
book) within a Computer Science, Information Systems, Database-y
curriculum specifically for the purpose of showing that not all
databases are SQL-DBMS's (or deriving from the RDBMS wave). Simply
showing the video I mentioned is helpful to giving students who have
spent half a semester normalizing data a broader perspective. If your
book would fit into that curriculum, I have already given some thought
on how to pursue that, enough to decide it was not worth it to me, but
it might be to you and your publisher. Some of this has to do with
what the current reach and goals of your publisher are.
How do you gui-ize a database ENGINE. SQL isn't GUI, is it?
I'll probably try to write my "Why MV" on the train tomorrow. Celko
wrote (ages ago) about several features he expected would be missing
from MS Access. They weren't visualisable, so they wouldn't exist in a
visual product. Seems he was correct!
The trouble is, programming etc is being dumbed down for the common man.
The ?majority? of people are incapable of abstract thought. So any
product that requires such thought (such as MV) is going to suffer :-(
Relational is easy to visualise - it's two-dimensional. But because it's
so shallow :-) it makes it hard to model real problems. MV is much more
flexible, powerful, and HARD TO VISUALISE. So the average "guy in the
street" doesn't - CAN'T - get it :-(
As soon as you can get people to THINK and DESIGN, you should be able to
get them to appreciate the power of MV. Trouble is, most people never
get that far :-( and then you end up with horror databases :-)
Cheers,
Wol
--
Anthony W. Youngman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
'Yings, yow graley yin! Suz ae rikt dheu,' said the blue man, taking the
thimble. 'What *is* he?' said Magrat. 'They're gnomes,' said Nanny. The man
lowered the thimble. 'Pictsies!' Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett 1998
Visit the MaVerick web-site - <http://www.maverick-dbms.org> Open Source Pick
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