FIT100
Stone Age Databases
Before
relational databases (the kind we study) there were only “flat
files”
•Structural
information was difficult to express
•All processing of information was “special cased” -- custom
programs were needed
•Information
repeated; difficult to combine
•Changes
in format of one file means all programs that ever process that file must
be changed
… adding ZIP codes
E.F. Codd of IBM invented relational databases