Introduction
I have worked with databases of many types on many platforms. Despite the fact that almost all of them have been based on the relational model. I’ve had some excursions into ancient database structures such as IMS (a hierarchical database) and, more recently into unstructured data, but in every case it has been a matter of a basic principle: finding the simplest way to organize data so that it makes sense. (As I often say to clients, “The data doesn’t lie.” When you lay data out this way, that way, and every which way, I’ve found that gradually its inherent structure becomes clear – if there is one. If there isn’t an inherent structure, what may become clear is some structure no one has ever thought of for the data. And sometimes, ...