Database Theory Column Victor Vianu U.C. San Diego vimnu~cs.ucsd.edu Like much of the theory community at large, database theoreticians have been increasingly struggling with the thorny issue of the relationship between theory and practice. This column initiates a series of (at least two 0 articles dedicated to this topic. These articles raise issues of interest, we hope, to all theoreticia~s. This column presents an article by David Hard, based on his invited talk at PODS 94. The next database column will feature an article by Christos Papadimitriou invited to PODS 95: Database Metatheory: Asking the Big Queries. Will I be Pretty, Will I be Rich? S o m e Thoughts on Theory vs. Practice in Systems Engineering David Harel The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel h a r e l ~ v £ s d o m , w e i z s a n n , ac. IL "The mathematician's patterns, like the painter's or the poets's, must be beautiful; . . . there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics." (G. H. Hardy [H, p. 25]) (at a cocktail party) Person A: "I'm writing a best-seller." Person B: "Short of money, eh?"
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