Does it make sense to remove slots ?

[Todd Fleming]

Massimo Dentico wrote:

>    http://www.dbdebunk.com/page/page/626998.htm


Nice article. Like the rest of their site, I agree with some points he 
makes and disagree with others. (I agree with articles on his site that 
say that SQL NULL is incompatible with the relational model). Here are 
some choice quotes:

"In THE THIRD MANIFESTO, Hugh Darwen and I demonstrate clearly--and I 
think conclusively -- that if your inheritance model involves "pointers 
or references," then it's logically impossible to deal properly with the 
idea that a circle is an ellipse!  In fact, we strongly suspect that 
it's this fact (the fact, that is, that pointers and a good model of 
inheritance are fundamentally incompatible) that's the root of the problem."

"In other words, it's my opinion that objects per se and a good model of 
inheritance are logically incompatible."

"To say it one more time:  The inheritance model that Hugh Darwen and I 
propose (a) does not involve objects and (b) does understand that a 
square is a rectangle (and a circle is an ellipse)."

His ideal model seems to eliminate every language that I'm aware of, 
except, perhaps, the truely functional ones.

Todd