New query language

[Jean Morissette <je...@gmail.com>]

Hi,

SQL has a lot of problems; it is incomplete, unfriendly, unsound, too
huge, confusing, inconsistent, etc. [1, 2, 3]  It is the more ugly
language that I ever see.

For many reasons, it seems that no DBMS vendor is interested to create
a better language.  So my question: why don't we - the open source
community - take the lead and create a new language that could be the
basis for a future standard?

Regards,
-Jean

[1] http://web.onetel.com/~hughdarwen/TheThirdManifesto/HAVING-A-Blunderful-Time.html
[2] http://www.thethirdmanifesto.com/
[3] http://www.ipipan.waw.pl/~subieta/artykuly/CritiqObjAlg.html

Re: New query language

[Dy...@Sun.COM]

Jean Morissette <je...@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> SQL has a lot of problems; it is incomplete, unfriendly, unsound, too
> huge, confusing, inconsistent, etc. [1, 2, 3]  It is the more ugly
> language that I ever see.

That's your opinion.

> For many reasons, it seems that no DBMS vendor is interested to create
> a better language.  

Actually, it has been tried a number of times, but has never
succeeded (much).

> So my question: why don't we - the open source
> community - take the lead and create a new language that could be the
> basis for a future standard?

It has been tried. And many people out there are still trying,
hard. If you want to try as well, please do. Somehow though, I don't
think you'll find much support for your cause in the Derby
community. Derby is, after all, a very SQL-centered RDBMS. If SQL is
"the more ugly language that I ever see", then maybe Derby isn't for
you :)

-- 
dt

Re: New query language

[Rick Hillegas <Ri...@Sun.COM>]

Hi Jean,

I share your general sense of disappointment with SQL but I don't think 
that this community could do much better.

1) SQL is a language designed by a committee. That's why it's so 
sprawling and inconsistent. I think that, very quickly, another 
community-designed language would be just as big and ambiguous.

2) Despite all the problems with SQL, it gets the job done. There's a 
lot of inertia behind it and it would be tough to sell a new language to 
the larger user community. That, at least, was my experience years ago 
when I worked on an experimental database trying to do exactly what you 
propose: design a next generation query language.

Regards,
-Rick

Jean Morissette wrote:

>Hi,
>
>SQL has a lot of problems; it is incomplete, unfriendly, unsound, too
>huge, confusing, inconsistent, etc. [1, 2, 3]  It is the more ugly
>language that I ever see.
>
>For many reasons, it seems that no DBMS vendor is interested to create
>a better language.  So my question: why don't we - the open source
>community - take the lead and create a new language that could be the
>basis for a future standard?
>
>Regards,
>-Jean
>
>[1] http://web.onetel.com/~hughdarwen/TheThirdManifesto/HAVING-A-Blunderful-Time.html
>[2] http://www.thethirdmanifesto.com/
>[3] http://www.ipipan.waw.pl/~subieta/artykuly/CritiqObjAlg.html
>  
>