

Ask HN: Why are languages seen as tools but DBs aren't? - biterman

There's a lot of commotion going on about different database technologies other than the good ol' relational model. This typically ends up with people taking extreme positions either on a pro-SQL or a anti-SQL side.<p>To me this is just like the old programming language wars. But, there's a lot of wisdom to be found that languages are tools and one should ideally pick the best one for each job.<p>Why can't we come to a similar conclusion about database models?<p>[edit: This is an honest question. Is there's some critical difference that I'm missing?]
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davidw
You _shouldn't_ necessarily pick the _best_ one for each job, depending on the
size of the job and a lot of other factors.

[http://journal.dedasys.com/2007/12/12/programming-
languages-...](http://journal.dedasys.com/2007/12/12/programming-languages-
are-not-like-hand-tools)

~~~
biterman
Granted the "best" one for a particular task need not be defined exclusively
by considerations about the language itself.

The (apparent) lack of this exact reasoning when choosing databases for
projects is what surprises me.

There seem to be two bands: 1\. One who equates database to relational
database and disregards everything else. 2\. One who decries the relational
database and proposes <insert alternate model> as a the end-all of database
models.

