Re: RDBMS design issue

On Wed, 9 Jul 2025 11:56:43 -0700, Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
wrote:

On 7/9/2025 11:40 AM, Joe Gwinn wrote:

But, an agent with access to the data AND THE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN THEM can extract additional information to add value.

 
I think we've exhausted this SED thread, so I'll stop.
 
=====================================
 
But I did recall a key to the larger issue.  There are lots of ways to
organize library indexes.  The Savant of such things, Shiyali
Ramamrith Ranganathan, worked out the details in the 1930s, in India,
publishing in English.  He spent his entire career on this issue.
 
.<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._R._Ranganathan>

>
You're not trying to organize a library index.  You're trying to imbue
data with *meaning* that another agency can understand.
>
If some ill has befallen you and I can't get in touch with your
"emergency contact", should I give up?  Perhaps if I knew which
of the names in your phone were RELATIVES I might give one of them
a try...
>
Which of the 7 doctors in my phone should be called if I was
having a dental problem?  Medical problem?  What about those
"doctors" who have nothing to do with medicine??  Which are
my *current* providers vs. records of PREVIOUS (now retired!)
providers?
>
How do you (another agency) synthesize this information without
access to my grey matter?

You are not the first to think of such things, by orders of magnitude.

Another place to look are the various Secretary's "Handbook to Filing
Systems".  Google will bring up lots of examples.

I was deep into such issues back in the days when DEC VAX/VMS was
being invented.  DEC eventually published a book on VAX/VMS Internals
and Data Structures:

.<https://www.amazon.com/VAX-VMS-Internals-Data-Structures/dp/1555580599>

It cited two books that were very influential.  The most important is:
 
"Simon_Herbert_A_The_Sciences_of_the_Artificial_3rd_ed" - The
Architecture of Complexity.  MIT Press, still in print.

The other, regarding file system organization,was Ranganathan. 

I don't recall where I got the Secretary's Handbook.  It may have been
my Department Secretary of that day; these no longer exist.

Dig in if you wish.  Computers have changed nothing essential.

Joe