Relational databases are in their sixth decade, and the database community is understandably celebrating and reflecting on its accomplishments. In two wonderful pieces, Donald Chamberlin shared his perspective on the past half-century, and Eugene Wu shared thoughts on where we can go from here. At a time of reflection on relational database management systems as a largely solved problem, I’m struck by a painful contrast: databases are more powerful than they’ve ever been, but the average ...
