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7. The Third Manifesto

[Foundation for Object Relational Databases: The Third Manifesto ] is a book by some of the progenitors of relational databases that presents further extension of the principles. It notably addresses shortcomings of:

A severe problem with SQL systems is that they haven't strongly followed Codd's relational rules . Consider:

Unfortunately, the book is a difficult read, as it is not quick to present, in a readable form, a prescription for what the authors would commend as the Right Thing. They concentrate on theory, and commit a vast amount of material to pointing out the shortcomings of SQL and so-called "object relational" database systems. The database language they describe, [ Tutorial D], has not been fully implemented in a form so as to make it fully usable. And in that they do intend it to be an alternative to SQL, it would be rather valuable to present it in a more " positive" fashion. Reportedly, Fabian Pascal's Practical Issues in Database Management: A Reference for the Thinking Practitioner provides more direct prescriptions for how to work around the relational weaknesses of SQL.

An early version of their paper that presented in the ACM SIGMOD journal may be found as [The Third Manifesto] published in PostScript form.

The CQL database system is seeking to provide an implementation of the specification described in the [Third Manifesto]. Several other systems are also trying to implement parts of [ Tutorial D].

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