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From: jfr@locus.com (Jon Rosen)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: INFORMIX SQL functions
Keywords: informix sql
Message-ID: <20081@oolong.la.locus.com>
Date: 29 Nov 90 16:43:40 GMT
References: <1990Nov22.210621.7930@tfic.bc.ca> <19917@oolong.la.locus.com> <1990Nov28.222220.20110@tfic.bc.ca>
Organization: Locus Computing Corp, Los Angeles
Lines: 32

In article <1990Nov28.222220.20110@tfic.bc.ca> clh@tacitus.UUCP (Chris Hermansen) writes:
>
>(Stuff deleted about SQL and SQL functions)
>
>DATE functions, for !@#$%^ sake!!!  Yessir, let's let the user convert
>that character string to a date.  That'll make 'em really happy; talk
>about convenience.
>
>But your point is well taken.  I say, put the extensions in and let the
>user beware.  Just don't take standard things out!
>

One more point... Your comment on date functions is reasonable from your
prospective as a person interested in numeric processing... However,
the SQL standards mostly came from IBM's work in the 70's and into the
80's in DB2 and as most of us know, IBM's bias is commercial data
processing, not numerical analysis... After all, that is where they 
sell most of their iron... IBM added a complete set of DATE and TIME
functions to DB2 pretty early... This allows commercial users to do
things like compare dates accurately, add days to a date (for things
like payment aging and checking if accounts are delinquent) which are
about as important to commercial users as transcendental functions are
to engineers and scientists... So, while I understand your frustration
with most SQL's (and particularly Informix's) lack of numeric functions,
don't flame the poor commercial user because s/he just might respond:
"Cosine? Oh sure, just what we need, a way to turn a number from 0-360
into a number from 0-1!"   
 
The reality is we need ALL KINDS of function capabilities in SQL. I hope
the standards guys are listening...
 
Jon Rosen