Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!rutgers!bellcore!faline!ulysses!sfmag!sfsup!prj
From: prj@sfsup.UUCP (P.Jayne)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Network vs. Relational DBMSs
Message-ID: <2550@sfsup.UUCP>
Date: 31 Dec 87 21:13:53 GMT
Organization: AT&T-IS, Summit N.J. USA
Lines: 36

There aren't a lot of defenders of pre-relational DBMSs out there it seems.
I can no longer resist jumping into this.  I've been doing database and
datacomm for over ten years now, and I've heard that:

	Computers are going to solve your data storage/retrieval problems.
	COBOL is going to solve your data storage/retrieval problems.
	CICS is going to solve...
	IMS is going to solve...
	Flash! Relational technology is going to solve...

The Brooklyn Bridge is up for sale again, and there are lots of buyers.

Well, Bradshaw, it's like this:
	Complex problems don't become simple because we want easy answers.
	Arithmetic is a lot easier to use than Calculus, but sometimes you
	need Calculus and even more complicated methods.
	The big lie of Relational Technology is that all human applications
	can be reduced to a set of tables and a set of clever queries.
	Data complexity doesn't disappear when you hide it in the form of
	torturous SQL statements.

Relational DBMSs succeed when they fill the niche of fairly easy systems that
aren't worth the expense of doing a full-blown application.  They fail rather
dismally when they meet up with anything complex.  If they were all they claim
to be, many or most network systems would have been converted by now.  In fact,
no large complex system has ever been converted (corrections, please) to a
Relational DBMS -- the usual approach is to do "new" development on the new
system (which means the easy stuff they didn't have time for).

If you would like to get a feel for the idea, consider how your life would
be if the computer systems you use today were "relational".  Forget word
processing.  Forget compilers.  Oh yes, and how many SQL interpretors are
written in SQL?  Relational systems have a definite place in the market and
they always will.  But don't expect them to get you to Brooklyn.
	Paul Jayne
	sfsup!prj