Chapter Two
In Search of a Data Algebra
We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive. C. S. Lewis
What this chapter covers
The algebra of data was invented at Algebraix Data Corporation, a company founded by software engineers on little more than the conviction that such an algebra ought to exist. It took about five years to evolve, tested against one data processing context after another.
This chapter is the account of why it was needed. It runs from Russell’s barber through functional programming and the proliferation of languages, into the relational malaise, and out the other side to axiomatic extended set theory.
- Shaving the barber
- Functional programming
- The tower of Babel
- The evolution of functional languages
- Hybrid languages
- The relational malaise
- The consequences of bad algebra
- Axiomatic extended set theory
- A final thought
Download this chapter Print pages 11–22 of Data Algebra.
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