This is the mail archive of the xsl-list@mulberrytech.com mailing list .


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: Can sets have order?


>>  I'd also agree with my original statement. Terminology isn't always
>>  consistently applied.
>
>Agreed here, but I can't think of a respectable terminology that restricts
>sets to be unordered.
>

I don't know if he's correct or not, but the eminently respectable C. 
J. Date writes on p. 92 of the sixth edition of his well respected 
text "Introduction to Database Systems":

"2. Tuples are unordered (top to bottom)

This property follows from the fact that the body of the relation is 
a mathematical set; sets in mathematics are not ordered."

This is a rather significant point in his discussion.
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|                  The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999)                   |
|              http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/books/bible/               |
|   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764532367/cafeaulaitA/   |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
|  Read Cafe au Lait for Java News:  http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/ |
|  Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/     |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]