V. Kevin Moore Whitney
The use of relations as a model of information stored in large data bases has several significant advantages over other methods of data description. It is often, however, criticized as difficult to implement efficiently. In this paper, some of the pros and cons of the relational model are discussed. The concepts of modeling information structures with data is illustrated with the CODASYL DBTG and the relational models. Then the main concepts of a relational data management system are presented based on current implementations. The advantages and disadvantages of the relational model is discussed in the light of these implementations. By presenting the theories of relational data management in a context of specific system implementations, the advantages and disadvantages of this data organization will be more clearly understood.