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Re:Ask HN: Why are relational DBs are the standard instead o... by Sharlin on Sunday October 03, 2021 @12:47PM (#28738512)
History of science, as a scholarly discipline, is unfortunately rather decoupled from science (or engineering) itself. Practitioners of a field are rarely as interested in the field's history as they probably should. History of CS in particular has not attracted much academical interest even among science historians, possibly due to its relative youth and technical nature.
Re:Ask HN: Why are relational DBs are the standard instead o... by seirl on Sunday October 03, 2021 @09:49PM (#28742187)
It's a good thing that the two are separate. You really want good scientific advances to be put in textbooks, and the rest should be left for history books. You really don't want to have the scientific debate get muddled in pointless historical fights like in heterodox economics where people are still debating what mArX rEaLlY mEaNt centuries later. Scientists should read textbooks that reflect the current state of the art, not 40 years old papers that will necessarily be flawed.
Re:Ask HN: Why are relational DBs are the standard instead o... by Sharlin on Monday October 04, 2021 @04:50AM (#28744538)
That only works if you assume a linear model of scientific progress. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, and this is extremely evident in the field of software engineering (granted, SE is not science and not even a good example of an engineering discipline) where old wisdoms are forgotten and then reinvented every five years.