path: root/docs/about.org



* About

Sakura is a semantic-relational algebra engine inspired by
E. F. Codd's RM/T and D. McGoveran's (as understood by Fabian Pascal)
SRDM. It models relations in both intension and extension, providing
their manipulation as first-class elements of an algebra.

* Motivation

We believe the relational model was not ever fully implemented. The
fundamental necessity of expressing intent and binding meaning
enclosed to a conceptual model in data is seldom achieved by any
self-claimed relational database vendor. The emergence of different
physically concerned paradigms in the industry demonstrate not only a
large scale amnesia about fundamentals, but also a lethal
manifestation of problems that should not exist otherwise. The
relational data model as an applied theory is an universally rich and
concrete approach to reality that bases itself greatly in
moderate-realism applied to mathematics, as described in =An
Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematics as the
Science of Quantity and Structure= by J. Franklin. We believe that
unleashing the full potential of the relational model as refined over
the years despite overwhelming disregard of the industry as a whole,
will promote efficiency to a new scale never seen, that was very much
so cut short by relational pretenders and theoretically unsound
approaches. Our goal is to eliminate the application-database
distinction, while maintaining a clear separation between a first
order predicate logic algebra engine and a higher order predicate
logic decision engine (application) via an embedded data sublanguage
with Sakura as a possible auxiliary runtime.

* Design Intent

Sakura aims to treat relations as algebraic manipulation units with both:

- extension (actual tuples, finite or generated)
- intension (schema + constraints + derivation meaning)

The current engine already exposes the extension side robustly for
many operations, despite the lack of constraints greater than 1OP.
The main active work is making intension handling fully consistent and
reliable across planners/operators/protocols.

* References

- Codd, E. F. (1970), "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks"
- Codd, E. F. (1979), "Extending the Database Relational Model to Capture More Meaning"
* About

Sakura is a semantic-relational algebra engine inspired by
E. F. Codd's RM/T and D. McGoveran's (as understood by Fabian Pascal)
SRDM. It models relations in both intension and extension, providing
their manipulation as first-class elements of an algebra.

* Motivation

We believe the relational model was not ever fully implemented. The
fundamental necessity of expressing intent and binding meaning
enclosed to a conceptual model in data is seldom achieved by any
self-claimed relational database vendor. The emergence of different
physically concerned paradigms in the industry demonstrate not only a
large scale amnesia about fundamentals, but also a lethal
manifestation of problems that should not exist otherwise. The
relational data model as an applied theory is an universally rich and
concrete approach to reality that bases itself greatly in
moderate-realism applied to mathematics, as described in =An
Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematics as the
Science of Quantity and Structure= by J. Franklin. We believe that
unleashing the full potential of the relational model as refined over
the years despite overwhelming disregard of the industry as a whole,
will promote efficiency to a new scale never seen, that was very much
so cut short by relational pretenders and theoretically unsound
approaches. Our goal is to eliminate the application-database
distinction, while maintaining a clear separation between a first
order predicate logic algebra engine and a higher order predicate
logic decision engine (application) via an embedded data sublanguage
with Sakura as a possible auxiliary runtime.

* Design Intent

Sakura aims to treat relations as algebraic manipulation units with both:

- extension (actual tuples, finite or generated)
- intension (schema + constraints + derivation meaning)

The current engine already exposes the extension side robustly for
many operations, despite the lack of constraints greater than 1OP.
The main active work is making intension handling fully consistent and
reliable across planners/operators/protocols.

* References

- Codd, E. F. (1970), "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks"
- Codd, E. F. (1979), "Extending the Database Relational Model to Capture More Meaning"