SQL Server 2005

[Ronald Bourret]

Michael Kay wrote:

> The decision should really be based on the process model, not the data
> model. If a document like an insurance claim is processed as a document, and
> has a life-cycle as a document, and if it's convenient for applications (and
> users) to view it as a document, then there's no point shredding it, though
> many people who've spent too long with SQL will instinctively do so. That's
> partly because database culture makes the process model secondary: the
> philosophy is that you don't know how the information will be used so you
> shouldn't build that into your design.

Interesting. I thought that reliance on a single process model was why 
hierarchical databases (largely) lost out to relational databases. Or 
have the query languages and databases gotten good enough that we can go 
back to what the relational world views as a too-expensive luxury?

-- Ron