Comment by dataflow
2 months ago
> I can fairly trivially fix a sandwich out of bread, peanut butter, and jam; in no way does that imply that the three ingredients sitting next to each other on the counter are a sandwich.
What is "sandwich" in this analogy? Nobody is claiming the schema is a "database", or a "table". I was saying it's one component of the file layout.
Using your own analogy: if you know you put the jam near the peanut butter, you know part of the ingredient layout. You can't say "it's not ingredient layout if you haven't told me where the bread is."
The point about the sandwich was that the inputs to a function are not correctly referred to as its output. Those are distinct things.
If you wanted to further extend the analogy to apply to schemas then I guess the recipe would be the database engine and the final product that you eat would be the file layout. Knowing that the final dish will include jam does not mean that you have the final dish in your possession. The jam sitting on the counter is not the final dish.
Importantly, you don't even know how I'm going to use the jam. I could put it only on one half, or I could arrange it in stripes, or I could even use more than two pieces of bread! I might not even make a sandwich! I could even throw it all in a blender and make a (disgusting) smoothie.