Database Reading

Databases are becoming more and more prevalent in everyday society. They are used throughout all different fields and are typically computer based although they can be paper based. The assigned reading we had to do looked into databases and what DBMS is. This article was actually pretty interesting, as it looked in depth into the how databases are organized, managed and maintained. It also explained about different kinds of DBMS. One of the DBMS which was discussed was RDBMS (relational database management system) which was what I decided to look more into as it seems to be the most used DBMS. I noticed that Kyle did the same thing, although he looked more into how RDBMS is used within BIM while I just looked into the general idea of RDBMS.

The first article I read was composed of three parts that looked into Database Management Systems, Relational Database Management Systems, and Database Administrators. The first section of the article looked into what DBMS was in a more simplified manner than the assigned reading. It discussed the four key aspects to databases, which include modeling language, a database engine, a database query language, and a transaction mechanism. The second section of the article looked in depth at RDBMS and how it works, especially within Web-applications. It discussed the most important parts of an RDBMS, including: tables, rows, and columns; normalizing; keys and primary keys; relationships; and queries and views. The last section of the article talked about the person who would create and maintain a database within a company. According to the article this person is known as a Database Administrator. This part of the article was interesting because it talked about the fact that this is an important job within companies, and in order to become an administrator, you must be certified in database management systems.

The second article I read was actual the first chapter of the Oracle handbook, called Oracle for Beginners. The title of the chapter was "Introduction to RDBMS." Again this was another article that looked in greater depth at RDBMS. Ultimately the chapter discussed a lot of the same things that were discussed in the assigned reading but in a easier to understand way. The chapter talked about the key elements associated with RDBMS, and how they are used in this type of database. The most interesting part of this chapter was the discussion of relational algebra. This idea was not seen explicitly within the assigned reading, and after reading it made it much easier to understand the different components of RDBMS. Also, learning about relational algebra was an interesting way to look into RDBMS models and how they work. In particular, the way tasks are to be performed within this type of database was much easier to understand due to how this section discussed relational algebra.