I always felt like the relational model, SQL, and the extensions and add-ons like PL/SQL come from people with totally different worldviews and make quite a mess together. I couldn't design something better than PL/SQL, but it just seems so, so wrong to me.
On the other hand, the purists* who rant about nulls, I think have missed something as well.
But on the whole, I would like to see something related to SQL, that tries to improve it without grafting things on, that has an overall vision and an approach of simplifying and making it more coherent. Not being committed to the syntax, and wanting to close the loop more between manipulating data and manipulating the language itself.
I don't know, if you say SQL is a functional programming language, ok, and you take some common functional language that has nice syntax and make it consistent with the relational model, what do you get?
*Of which my impression was formed by (IIRC):
"Relational Database Writings, 1989-1991 by C. J. Date"
(which Amazon seems to want over $1,000 for right now, in paperback)
On the other hand, the purists* who rant about nulls, I think have missed something as well.
But on the whole, I would like to see something related to SQL, that tries to improve it without grafting things on, that has an overall vision and an approach of simplifying and making it more coherent. Not being committed to the syntax, and wanting to close the loop more between manipulating data and manipulating the language itself.
I don't know, if you say SQL is a functional programming language, ok, and you take some common functional language that has nice syntax and make it consistent with the relational model, what do you get?
*Of which my impression was formed by (IIRC): "Relational Database Writings, 1989-1991 by C. J. Date" (which Amazon seems to want over $1,000 for right now, in paperback)