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If you’ve never read this paper, you owe it to yourself to give it a thorough read. It truly gives you a sense for the problems relational databases were attempting to solve with the tech of the day. Also note the strong mathematical underpinnings of many of the core ideas. It’s no wonder these ideas have withstood the test of time.

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I recall the first training class I had where I connected relational tables with the theory I learned in school. Life never was the same after.

On Codd we trust.

I've found it's generally worthwhile to read the original literature; especially so when it was all worked out, but the technology didn't support doing it properly and people have persisted with approximations and fudges needlessly (like some areas of science). The standard of writing may be better in the '60s and '70s literature than in recent stuff anyway.

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