Re: Downloadable draft of SQL:2008

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:23 AM, Eric Prud'hommeaux <eric@w3.org> wrote:

> * Richard Cyganiak <richard@cyganiak.de> [2010-10-19 23:48+0100]
> > http://www.wiscorp.com/sql200n.zip
> >
> > This looks like a 2006 draft of SQL:2008. I don't know how it
> > differs from the final version, and I don't know why it is available
> > for download for free, given the price of the real standard.
> >
> > Anyone who doesn't have a copy of SQL:2008 handy might find this useful.
> >
> > Part 1 defines basic terminology (client, server, schema, table,
> > column etc) and says what it in SQL Core.
>
> I guess it comes as no surprise that SQL speaks of tables, rows and
> columns (as opposed to relations, tuples and attributes/values):
>
> 3.1.1.27 table: An unordered collection of rows having an ordered
> collection of one or more columns. Each
>         column has a name and a data type. Each row has, for each column,
> exactly one value in the data
>         type of that column.
>
> Per Richard's earlier comments, should we use this language (table, row,
> column, name, data type) for our documents?
>

+1

We should have a consistent vocabulary. I would stick with the same language
as the SQL specs (table, row, etc)

We should (at least for us) create a glossary of terms (put it on the wiki?)
so anybody who reads the document and may be confused about a term, can know
exactly what we are referring to.

>
> I notice this definition elides the uniqueness of the column names,
> which is true of SQL but not of relational algebra. Are there any use
> cases which motivate us going beyond the relational data accessible to
> SQL, e.g. the two name attributes in:?
>  ┌────┬──────┬───────┐
>  │ ID │ name │ name  │
>  ├────┼──────┼───────┤
>  │  7 │ Bob  │ Smith │
>  └────┴──────┴───────┘
>
> > Part 2 defines the SQL language.
> >
> > Part 11 defines the Information Schema (the standard way of finding
> > out which tables and columns are available in a database).
> >
> > The other parts are not relevant for SQL Core.
> >
> > Best,
> > Richard
> >
>
> --
> -ericP
>
>