Re: German lesson

Hans-Jürgen,

Yes, there is another programming language that is "so headstrong": SQL.  SQL is a pure expression language.  Yes, SQL has an optional component, SQL/PSM, that is procedural, and most people still think that SQL is something that you use while sitting at a terminal, asking questions and getting answers.

But, from the very beginning (roughly 1984), SQL has been a pure expression language.

Hope this helps,
   Jim

High time to learn a little German, don't you think so?

Keep cool, only a couple of words for today, and for a long time. They are Wort and Wert.

Wort - word

Wert - value

Notice how a slight shift of vowel turns word into value and turns value into word, and remember that in the beginning was the Word.

An expression is a shape which can be resolved to a value, and XQuery is a pure expression language. I wonder if there is another programming language which is so headstrong, so determined in being an expression language and nothing else. But the XQuery concept of a value is merged with the concept of a resource and its contents in an unprecedented and unparalled way. XQuery allows us to think of resources and resource contents - the contents selected from any number of resources with any degree of sophistication - as values. In XQuery resources and resource content selections are values, indivisible and meaningful like words, basic building blocks of thought. In the beginning was the Word, and in our humble trade we should be aware of the XQuery way of thought: in the beginning was the value.

-- 
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Jim Melton --- Editor of ISO/IEC 9075-* (SQL)     Phone: +1.801.942.0144
  Chair, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC32 and W3C XML Query WG    Fax : +1.801.942.3345
Oracle Corporation        Oracle Email: jim dot melton at oracle dot com
1930 Viscounti Drive      Alternate email: jim dot melton at acm dot org
Sandy, UT 84093-1063 USA  Personal email: SheltieJim at xmission dot com
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