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GraphQL isn’t particularly “graphy” nor does it have much to do (necessarily) with graph databases. Its name is, for the reason that it continually generates th
by pantaloony 6y ago
GraphQL isn’t particularly “graphy” nor does it have much to do (necessarily) with graph databases. Its name is, for the reason that it continually generates that sort of confusion, pretty bad.
- wenc 6y agoYou're correct -- it's more of a query-language-ish alternative to REST. However, it does let one work with hierarchical data structures that map more closely to the JSONish mental model that most app developers have, rather than with pure SQL tabular data structures which have to be object-mapped. I'd imagine most developers just want that, rather than capabilities for doing relationship/connection queries which real graph databases specialize in.
- pantaloony 6y agoRight—HierarchyQL or NestQL would be a better name, even. I’m not aware of its being much more ergonomic or helpful for graph queries than SQL is. Certainly nothing like Cypher or another actual query language for graphs. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just has a misleading name (in fact TFA even seems a bit confused about what it is)