Re:Databases always have a schema (2018)
by scriptkiddy on Monday February 25, 2019 @12:35PM
(#19247466)
You may have heard of it already, but if you haven't, I would recommend taking a look at RethinkDb: https://www.rethinkdb.com/docs/architecture/
It is a NoSQL Db, but has a lot of the features you're talking about. It doesn't have any form of "schema", but does allow for SQL style relational data. It definitely supports your "dynamic relational" data idea as stated above. The only issue is that any sort of data constraints need to be addressed at the outside of the Db itself.
Interesting, but the "outside" constraint processor issue could be a show-stopper. The "gradual tightening" of the DB is a key selling point of dynamic relational. Parts of it could be borrowed to make DR. And it's not clear how one queries it with SQL (or something very close). A translator layer would probably be needed.
But, one can gradually add rules as the requirements solidify. You can later add a rule that all rows of the Employee table must have a non-blank "last_name" column. You can have a rule/constraint that requires it for new rows, and perhaps have a "cleaning mode" to check existing rows. With enough rules/constraints, it acts pretty much like the current crop of RDBMS.
Dynamic relational could still use SQL, with some minor modifications to clarify intended compare types. (SQL has warts, but nothing better has arrived yet that's sufficiently better to justify tossing an established standard.)
It's not SQL versus No-SQL, it should be strong-typed SQL versus "soft" SQL. That way one doesn't have to toss all their SQL/RDBMS knowledge to get a dynamic RDBMS. The current dichotomy of choice is unnecessarily stark: it's either an RDBMS with SQL, or something very foreign. The No-SQL movement was driven by hardware & scaling needs, not query language needs.
If anyone is interested in starting up a dynamic relational company, I'd be glad to supply you with a draft spec for free.