Comment by hobs
7 years ago
Because of the decades of things not displacing it - when someone suggests "oh we'll just do it simpler" they often are not seeing the forest for the trees.
Simpler languages have been shipped dozens if not hundreds of times, and they generally tend towards expressing the things they missed or not giving enough functionality for the things they missed.
I am not saying its impossible, but you're going to have to do a lot more than hand waving to justify the reverse position.
It's sort of like the mouse trap problem. Mouse traps and SQL are already incredibly simple and incredible effective, that's why you don't see a reinvented mouse trap at home depot and why SQL remains unseated despite many efforts to replace it.
"that's why you don't see a reinvented mouse trap at home depot"
Interesting for you to say that. The last time I went looking for mouse traps, I found that every place I went had a reinvented type, and traditional style were extremely hard to find. Yet, it is true that the traditional style is simple and effective. I've learned from experience that anything else is likely to be useless.
You really think SQL is incredibly simple? I think TFA makes a pretty convincing argument that it is anything but.
Most common SQL statements read like somewhat stilted english. Many non-programmers find this particularly accessible.
Yes you can make some lovecraftian horrors if you really want to, but SQL is one of those things where just a little bit of knowledge goes a long way. If you can understand the basics you can get a lot of work done.
It's a lot like Excel. You can do some really complex confusing stuff in Excel. But you can also teach the basics to non-programmers quite easily, and command of the basic skills will be very empowering. Basic knowledge of Excel, like SQL, gives the user new ways to leverage computers when creating their own solutions to their own problems.
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Certainly there are complex aspects of it but you could teach someone how to do most of what you need to do in SQL in under an hour.