Customer Reviews

The Database Relational Model: A Retrospective Review and Analysis

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I found this book fascinating because it helped to explain some things which happened before I entered the scene. I've always wondered where the relational priesthood phenomenon originated. As a developer of various non-relational data stores I kept asking myself "ok, the relational approach is interesting and has merit, but why are these folks acting like it came on stone tablets from god almightly ?". This book helped to shed light on the (now) forgotten history behind the adoption of the relational technology through the late 70's and early 80's.

The only thing the book could have done better would be to have included reprints of Codd's papers. They are extensively referenced and discussed, but I had trouble finding them on the 'net. Of course I'm sure that the printed versions are easily available from any university library, and presumably there are copyright issues, but still it would be nice to have the source material and the commentary together in one volume.

This is _not_ a book which will educate a beginner in relational technology---it's most useful for folk who already know the subject but want to understand more about the history and chronology behind the movement. It's also quite a good primer on technical politics :)

This isn't my favorite Date book by any means, but it does go into the finer details or Codd's work and it does so at a level that really does Codd's work justice.

If you aren't really into Codd's work, and you are trying to find an intro to DB Theory, this definitely isn't for you. However, if you are looking for a great theoretical analysis of one of the greatest mind's in Computer Science, this is a great book.

This book is a thinly veiled critique, rather than review, of Codd's seminal works. In place of direct quotes from Codd, we are left with Date's paraphrasing. Of the 61 bibliographic references given, 27 are to Date's own work and 2 are to pieces that he published jointly.

The book wastes a good amount of text on introspective commentary of the form: now I'm going to discuss... so I have discussed... as I previously discussed. This style might be understandable in the magazine articles from which the text was derived, as a means of maintaining continuity between issues. It is glaringly unnecessary in a short book of 139 pages. I expected a more comprehensive effort at re-editing those articles when published in book form.

There are several places where Date explicitly states the places where he has omitted related details. He also mentions great examples from Codd without including them. I would rather that he omitted the introspective commentary and instead supplied those details and Codd's examples.

That said, an analytical reader should be able to deconstruct a reasonable `retrospective review and analysis' of Codd's inventions from this book, but should know at the start that the author's seemingly self-promotion coupled with a unnecessarily introspective style might slow that effort.

As always C. J. Date writes clearly and concisely, giving insight not only into the Relational Model, but it's development. The biblography of E.F. Codd's original articles and books (many now out of print) is extremely valuable for the mathematical historian. I wish some of the internal IBM memos referenced were available to the public at large.

When he breaks into song rewriting lyrics to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonly Hearts Club Band", however, one begins to doubt the old man's sanity. See a doctor, man.

This book explains the relational database model origins. The language is highly technical. If you want to know te basis of relational data model, don't try this book, 'cause it suposes you have enough experience about databases. I use this book in my database courses, 'cause topics as normalization are covered in this publication.

This book explains the fundamentals of relational database system in lucid style