From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2007-03-22T07:24:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Object/Relational Mapping is the Vietnam of Computer Sci

On Thu, Mar 22, 2007 at 05:40:05AM +0900, James Moore wrote:
> On 3/20/07, Austin Ziegler <halostatue@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >Data is king. Applications are pawns.
> >
> 
> Data is a dead fish.  Applications are knowing how to fish.  There are minor
> edge cases where data is more important ("feed me now or I die of
> starvation"), but in the grand scheme of things data is insignificant
> compared to the applications that produce and transform it.
> 
> We use relational databases as object stores because they're cheap and
> easily available, not because they're good for the task.

Except in cases of catch-and-release sport fishing, fishing is about the
fish.  If data's the fish and applications are fishing, data is *still*
king.

Now . . . having someone hand you munged data is not as valuable as
being able to do it yourself, so applications are important.
Ultimately, however, it's the data that matters, and applications should
be designed accordingly.  What good is fishing in a lake with no fish?

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);