Re: chooses not to generate code at all


H. S. Lahman wrote:
> Responding to JXStern...
>
> >
> > That would be a "trigger", not a "stored procedure" as such.
>
> The whole point of having a stored procedure as an integral part of the
> DBMS is so that the DBMS engine can execute it when triggered by some
> update activity on the stored data.
>
Nonetheless, what you're describing here is a "trigger", not a "stored
procedure", according to the standard definitions.

> >
> >>In theory one could store code, parametric
> >>data, and whatnot in the DBMS that is selectively invoked by external
> >>applications. In that case those applications define the scope and
> >>context of execution rather than the DBMS' data. So in that case the
> >>DBMS is just a storage medium for the procedures and doesn't decide when
> >>they should be executed.]
> >
> >
> > That is exactly what a "stored procedure" is all about.
>
> This is just an arbitrary blob of data and the execution dynamics are
> external to the DBMS. IOW, it is not an integral part of the DBMS itself.
>
Perhaps, although the stored procedure does expose a declarative
interface to the data, as opposed to a procedural interface in an OOPL.
That is a benefit.

> >>An RDB is not "an MDA". It is simply a model instance that can be
> >>either an Input Model or an Output model under MDA, depending upon
> >>context. It happens to instantiate a meta-model, which is reflected in
> >>schemas, etc.. That meta-model instantiates a general data model
> >>especially tailored to persistence (Table, Tuple, Field).
> >
> >
> > I'm not sure that these abstractions are "especially tailored to
> > persistence". Certainly "field" is a general concept.
>
> The point here is that SQL is not the only way to access an RDB; it is
> just one access paradigm. Nor is a conventional RDB the only way to
> implement Codd's RDM (e.g., OODB's and UML Class Models also honor that
> model.)
>
Surely not OODBMS's, I don't know of any implementation of an OODBMS
that does not break the relational calculus. The whole point of an
RDBMS is to expose an interface to the data through the relational
calculus to permit set theoretic operations against the data. That's
it's strength, what sets it apart.

> >>IOW: render unto Caesar the things that
> >>are Caesar's and render unto the DBMS the things that are data storage.
> >
> >
> > No, that's just the mistake so many make today. To a first
> > approximation, a DBMS is not about data storage, it's about data
> > modelling, and the fact that some entity is implemented as a table
> > need not be transparent to users, and indeed for occult internal
> > reasons, there may be times when a 3NF entity is NOT stored as a
> > table. Soon as you think it's all about storage,
>
> The DBMS exists to provide persistence for data.

Well, many things can support that, but what an RDBMS offers is a set
theoretic model of data, that takes it to a higher level than a
procedural interface.

> Much more important,
> the value of the RDM is that the data can be stored in a manner that is
> completely independent of its use.

Right, and on that score the OODBMS has been noticeably deficient.

Regards,
Daniel Parker

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: chooses not to generate code at all
    ... DBMS is so that the DBMS engine can execute it when triggered by some update activity on the stored data. ... If there is no trigger, ... favorite database and see what the tools call things. ... If the procedure execution is not triggered by DBMS ...
    (comp.object)
  • Re: chooses not to generate code at all
    ... DBMS is so that the DBMS engine can execute it when triggered by some update activity on the stored data. ... If one stores a procedure but does not provide a trigger then that procedure is not an integral part of the DBMS; it's just stored there, which is exactly what DBs do. ... The trigger for execution is insert/update/delete of data by the DBMS and the invocation is controlled by the DBMS. ... high level control subsystem that expanded into several of classes with ...
    (comp.object)
  • Re: chooses not to generate code at all
    ... >context of execution rather than the DBMS' data. ... >In this context relational algebra provides a meta-meta-model. ... >meta-model that provides the specific mappings necessary for the ... >are Caesar's and render unto the DBMS the things that are data storage. ...
    (comp.object)
  • Re: Use all available processors ?
    ... Parallelism of a single query execution in the DBMS. ... Processor Affinity for IO in the OS Kernel. ...
    (microsoft.public.sqlserver.clustering)
  • Re: chooses not to generate code at all
    ... DBMS is so that the DBMS engine can execute it when triggered by some update activity on the stored data. ... So I stand by my original assertion that if there is no trigger for the stored procedure, it isn't an integral part of the DBMS execution. ... Consider a memory-mapped OODB like ObjectStore. ...
    (comp.object)