One day seminar with Toon Koppelaars, Amstelveen, The Netherlands

Today I got an e-mail from Juliette Nuijten (Natural Join B.V.) alerting me that Toon Koppelaars will present on 29 November 2007, a mini seminar in Amstelveen (The Netherlands), based on his and Lex de Haan‘s book: Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals.

Unlucky enough, I will not be able to attend and I am sure this will be an very interesting mini seminar.

This is not only because Toon is a very gifted and inspiring speaker, but also because the seminar will present a very useful practical methods and theories applicable to us relational practitioners. The content of this seminar, which can also be found on the website of Ivan Pellegrin (www.maestridellarte.com) that organized this event, will have the following sections:

Part 1: The Mathematics.
The relational model of data is founded on two mathematical disciplines: set theory and logic. In this part of the seminar we’ll cover those parts of set theory and logic that are both necessary and sufficient to formally specify a database design and its integrity constraints.

Part 2: Specifying a database design with its integrity constraints in a mathematical way.
In this part we’ll demonstrate the application of these formal disciplines. We will introduce you to an example database design and demonstrate how the involved integrity constraints can formally be specified. We’ll also talk about why you would want to do this.

Part 3: Implementing the integrity constraints using a SQL DBMS (Oracle).
In this part we’ll point out the poor (declarative) support of integrity constraints in today’s SQL DBMS’s. Implementing data integrity can be a tough job, especially when constraints must consider multiple tuples. We’ll demonstrate a method, based on database triggers, to implement these constraints procedurally.

So, if you have the time attend and register yourself here at:

• Maestri dell’Arte

Be aware though, that I am biased, nowadays…

I like Toon and he bribed me with a free copy of his book (with a signed personal note inside), after my unselfish post (at that time) about his book…

😎