From: Olivier Renaud <o.renaud@...>
Date: 2007-03-22T01:29:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Object/Relational Mapping is the Vietnam of Computer Science

> On Mar 22, 2007, at 12:20 AM, Robert Klemme wrote:
> > On 20.03.2007 17:55, John Joyce wrote:
> >> I would argue that part of the problem is SQL being very unlike
> >> any non-database programming language.
> >
> > That may be because SQL is not a programming language although it
> > is often mistaken for one.  SQL, more precisely the query part of
> > it, *describes* data sets via set operations.
> >
> > Although there are declarative languages around (IIRC Prolog is one
> > of them) most programming languages are procedural (even OO
> > languages) and so people tend to expect SQL to be similar.
> >
> > Kind regards
> >
> > 	robert
> Ok, if you say so. Let's call it a describing language, but
> operations like AUTO INCREMENT seem an awful lot like programming. I
> guess we have to say Ruby is not a programming language either. It is
> a scripting language.
> hmm...
> many sources do describe (no pun intended) SQL as a declarative
> programming language. It isn't 'Turing complete' because it can't
> create an infinite loop. Big deal.
> That's academic nitpicking.

And I thought SQL could be classified as a functionnal programming language. 
But yes, "describing language" seems to be an appropriate definition.

-- 
Olivier Renaud