Database Analogies

[Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>]

At 08:52 AM 7/2/97 -0500, you wrote:

>"A database is like..." (the Forrest Gump--box of chocolates--thing
>won't
>work. I already tried!)
>
As I read the various posts responding to this request, I noted something
interesting.

One question we all overlooked was "What *aspect* of a database are you
trying to analogize?"

I think it matters. My own reply, picturing a database as a matrix of
pigeonholes, focused on the DB's schema, or structure. DB designers even use
this mental analogy to design schemas. I still think it's the best analogy
for structure, but it says little about how the DB is used, or why it's
important.

On the other hand, the analogies of books, filing cabinets, and the like are
better analogies to highlight the use of a database, but are not very close
to the actual way a database is built. For example, a true "database" file
in a filing cabinet would have distinct places in the file folder for all
the expected pieces of paper, just as a database has fields that reserve
space for data even if the data isn't available yet. And a "database" file
folder would require that pages be inserted in specific orders, and that the
papers be consistently filled out, with strict and rigorous guidelines for
what goes where. Books are even farther off base, structurally.

The Forrest Gump example is a good one for this point. Forrest uses the
analogy (actually a simile, of course) for how life works, not how it looks.
It isn't that life can be viewed as a progression of lumpy, sugary treats,
with childhood being a cherry cordial, youth being a dark chocolate, and so
forth. Life works, rather, like the way you'd approach a box of chocolates,
with about the same probability of getting the exact thing you wanted the
first time out.

Where else in our work should we probe deeper into the aspects we're
actually trying to analogize? Where else have we mistakenly cast an analogy
for function when we needed one for structure, or vice versa?







Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
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