Hugh Darwen's latest free book

paul c

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Nov 21, 2012, 5:54:15 PM11/21/12

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For those who aren't aware of his work, Hugh Darwen has written a
companion to his relational theory book, which can be read in parallel.
The theory book makes its points with Darwen and Date's Tutorial D
teaching language and the companion book uses SQL to make the same
points - or not where SQL is incapable!

I'd say the perspective is pretty unique, since Darwen spent years on
the SQL standards committee while also being a severe critic.

Both books are free pdf downloads at bookboon dot com. You do have to
put up with embedded ads which personally I don't find troublesome,
being as I am a fan of the author who I think is one of the few public
deep thinkers about not just the theory, but the applied theory.

Roy Hann

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Nov 22, 2012, 5:26:17 AM11/22/12

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paul c wrote:

> Both books are free pdf downloads at bookboon dot com.

Thanks for the tip-off Paul.

--
Roy

Eric

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Nov 22, 2012, 7:04:15 PM11/22/12

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On 2012-11-21, paul c <toledob...@oohay.ac> wrote:
> For those who aren't aware of his work, Hugh Darwen has written a
> companion to his relational theory book, which can be read in parallel.
> The theory book makes its points with Darwen and Date's Tutorial D
> teaching language and the companion book uses SQL to make the same
> points - or not where SQL is incapable!
>
> I'd say the perspective is pretty unique, since Darwen spent years on
> the SQL standards committee while also being a severe critic.
>
> Both books are free pdf downloads at bookboon dot com.

> You do have to
> put up with embedded ads which personally I don't find troublesome,

> being as I am a fan of the author ...

Well I do find it troublesome, though I too am a fan of the author. They
are irritating, distracting and a perversion of the whole idea of a
book. I find these books difficult to read, and I do not feel that I
could refer someone to them as part of a serious argument about database
theory, because the ads make the integrity of the book suspect.

It is another facet of the declining usefulness of the internet as real
factual information becomes harder and harder to find.

Bring back the Rx drawer!

Eric
--
ms fnd in a lbry

paul c

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Nov 22, 2012, 9:44:59 PM11/22/12

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On 22/11/2012 4:04 PM, Eric wrote:
> Well I do find it troublesome, though I too am a fan of the author. They
> are irritating, distracting and a perversion of the whole idea of a
> book. I find these books difficult to read, and I do not feel that I
> could refer someone to them as part of a serious argument about database
> theory, because the ads make the integrity of the book suspect.

I've seen some otherwise smart people say the same thing. Not for me,
which is why I referred the book(s) in the first place. Darwen's
arguments seem pretty well-founded and well put to me, nothing frivolous
about them. I think it's laughable to anybody who's serious for serious
content becomes un-serious because of nearby advertisements.

Anyway, I gather bookboon is considering ad-free, paid-for editions, but
my budget will continue to prefer the editions with ads'. Doesn't
bother me, after all I usually let Google et al know what's on my mind
in return for free email, etc.

Maybe it's just that generations who grew up with magazines don't find
ads' off-putting. Well into the 1990's the most succinct writing by CJ
Date was to be found only in print magazines. His columns were often
adjacent to Celko's. I thought the format forced both authors to write
very clearly (though of course Celko was writing clearly either about
stuff that has nothing to do with theory or if not that, he was just
writing clearly about nonsense!).

It's pdf's themselves that have always put me off, having to use various
graphical controls to imitate the turning of a printed page.

paul c

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Nov 22, 2012, 10:48:44 PM11/22/12

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On 22/11/2012 6:44 PM, paul c wrote:
> It's pdf's themselves that have always put me off, having to use various
> graphical controls to imitate the turning of a printed page.

A "good" example of stupid technocratic behaviour is the pdf with a
technical subject that has several paragraphs on different pages that
refer to the same figure. This is a nuisance in paper books but a much
bigger nuisance in pdf's.

It's always seemed the height of stupid design and absent ergonomics not
to take advantage of the common display visual medium that pdf's use to
let you put two pages side-by-side on a screen while they don't let you
indicate that two pages are to be displayed, one to preserve a figure
that you have indicated, while you continue to scroll through nearby
pages that have sentences that refer to it.

Database theory and a lot of other subjects would be more accessible if
the technocrats were less obsessed with their methods and more
interested in the observer's situation.

The epub developers seem to be re-thinking a number of such aspects, but
I haven't seen them deal with that one yet.